


In The Absence Of Knowledge

by Kar9aiTheThird



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1844842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kar9aiTheThird/pseuds/Kar9aiTheThird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The entire K-unit is sent to investigate an organization in Bahrain. On the way, theyre intercepted by another group who have their own idea about whats going on. They want answers from Alex&Co that they don't have and its costing them. Painfully. TORTURE</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This muse bit me with a vengeance some Saturdays back after watching an R flick with my mom. There was some torture, very mild- only finger breaking, but it gave me the idea for a torture fic. If you don't like torture, turn back now. The scenes are not gory because the torture is non-mutilating but it is torture none the less.

**Thursday October 14 4:00 pm East African Time-Location: Bahrain**

**Information gathered through the investigation of three bombings in Liverpool, London and Manchester have initiated an investigation of a lead in Bahrain. Because of the nature of the zone, a combat ready espionage configuration was advised. After much disagreement, MI5 and the SAS reluctantly agreed to send K-unit in its entirety to investigate; Wolf Fox, Snake, Eagle and Cub. Alex was to portray a child witness under SAS protection en route to Jordan to testify against a fake offender with his older team members as his escort.**

**Now as their Envoy drove through the desert approaching the designated position to investigate, they were intercepted and violently captured by an unknown third party.**

* * *

 

"Move! Get going."

Alex was maliciously shoved forward tumbling down a few stairs into Wolf who was just ahead of him in the steep, narrow stone stairway they we being led through. Wolf instinctively stopped to prevent Alex from falling any further. "You okay?"

"Yeah" Alex answered after a moment resuming their slow descent down into the earth. Because of the jet lag he'd been experiencing, Alex had been deeply asleep during the drive through the desert. When their-still unknown assailants- hijacked the vehicle, he had the benefit of an adrenaline burst to wake up and find out what was going on. But now that they were blindfolded and bound hands behind their backs, the lethargy was setting in again with a vengeance and he found himself struggling to stay awake.

When they finally stopped and were allowed to see again, they were in a small stone room measly lit with a lone bulb swinging from a raw wire. Three men stood before them examining them with scorn.

"Where are you headed?" barked one of the men in a slight German accent. He was short and rather ugly with a crooked nose and yellow teeth.

Before Wolf could answer, Alex irritably snapped back. "You could have asked that before you dragged us down into your rat hole!"

The bigger, seemingly quieter, man promptly backhanded Alex to the unforgiving floor.

"Speak only when spoken to child."

Alex glared up at him as he wiped a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth. "You did ask something." he spat indignantly, uncharacteristically free with his tongue

Fox opened his mouth to tell Alex to cool it but thought better of it and decided he had to learn from now when to keep his mouth shut.

The man who had slapped Alex, picked him up by the collar of his shirt and shoved him into the wall causing him to see exploding lights in front of his eyes.

"We didn't ask _you_ anything because _you're_ nothing but a child. You either learn to stay in your place or feel pain." He banged him against the wall again for emphasis. "Do I make myself clear?"

Alex closed his eyes to ease the dizziness he felt but didn't answer. The man eventually dropped him on the floor were he decided to sit for fear that he would throw up if he stood.

Crooked Nose glared at him before asking the men the question again.

"We were on our way to the airport with the kid, but I wonder what concern is that to you." Wolf answered tersely

"You don't get to make demands and expect them to be met like you're used to in America." Crooked Nose spat

"We're not from America." Eagle interjected disgustedly

"Dimwit" Alex added silently seeing that the man could have determined that from their accent.

"Whether your idea of rights is different from ours is of no interest to me." Wolf continued. "Your bullshit is getting on my nerves and if you don't have a good reason for having us here then we'll be on our way to catch our plane."

The third man of fit medium sized build with dark hair and eyes, spoke up for the first time.

"Why didn't you speak up before we dragged you down here as you say?" he asked

"There was a friggin' gun in my face; was I supposed to tempt you to use it?" Wolf answered rapidly losing patience

"I see" the man answered. He walked over to Alex who was still sitting, pulled out a gun and cocked it at his head.

"So you will answer our questions if there is a gun in _his_ face then?"

The members of K-unit stiffened at the sudden severity of the situation.

"Now the four of you are soldiers right?" the man asked, satisfied with their response

"Yes," Wolf answered tightly

"And why is the child with you?"

Wolf answered carefully "We are escorting him to Jordan."

The man scoffed and pulled Alex to a standing position beside him.

"Why does he need four soldiers to escort him to Jordan?"

"He is on his way to testify as a witness of a crime."

The man smirked as though he knew something and asked "And what is his name?"

Snake glanced at Wolf who shook his head.

"I said, what is his name?"

"Why do you need to know?" Wolf demanded

"You're about to ask yourself why didn't you just answer the damn question." He pressed the gun closer to Alex's head.

Wolf sighed "Michael" he answered cautiously

The man groaned and smacked Alex across the face with the butt of his gun, knocking him backwards and into Snake.

"Lie again and he'll lose his big toe. I know that his name is not Michael anything because my sources tell me that this boy," he took out a black and white photo of Alex in a suit in an upscale restaurant "is Alex Rider."

Alex glanced up at Wolf in concern who cursed under his breath.

"Now let me ask again. What are you doing in Bahrain?"

There was a long pregnant pause in which K-unit refused to answer.

"Fine, we'll find out from the boy himself, after all he's the spy." he began to lead Alex towards a very narrow dark passage way. "Blindfold them again and lead them out." he commanded

"No!" Eagle shouted as the leader was leaving with Alex "He won't know anything."

"Get Back HERE you coward!" Wolf yelled desperately wrestling against the burly man who was about to slip a black hood over his head. "You want information you have to ask us!"

The man paused and turned back to them. "You have already proven that you don't intend to answer." His moment of divided attention gave Alex a chance to strike. He had no intention of being led away into some hell hole away from his team to be interrogated by mad men. So he used the opportunity to kick the man in the knee as hard as he could and when he stumbled, he kneed him in the crotch. Then he quickly squeezed past him and back into the open room they had come from and stood between Fox and Wolf, hardly panting but definitely agitated. To put it simply, the prospect of going down that hallway alone with that man, terrified him and he decided that either K-unit came with him or else-more preferably- he didn't go at all.

The burly man tried shoving past Eagle, who had moved to stand in front of Alex, out of the way to grab Alex again while Crooked Nose aimed to shoot him in the leg but the leader came limping back into the room and signaled for them to stop.

"You all are very attached." he spat in a pained voice "Now it will cost you, ALL of you are going to regret it." he yelled "take them to a cell." he barked.

He glared at Alex menacingly as they passed. "You have no idea of the horrors that await you on the other side of that door." he hissed "When I'm through with you we will know everything you have to tell; EVERYTHING!" he screamed at their retreating backs.

* * *

"Why couldn't you keep your damn mouth shut?" Wolf demanded to know but Alex didn't answer. The five of them were locked in a tiny room-no more than 2.5 meters in either direction, with only a dirty wooden bench in it and a tiny metal urinal in a 2 foot extension from the room. The ceiling was rather low with another grimy bulb hanging from it and while the men stood around trying to peek through the peephole in the heavy wooden door and whatnot, Alex just sat in a corner with his arms around his knees trying to make himself smaller.

"Don't ignore me Cub; if you'd kept quiet we might have had a chance to get out and you know that." Wolf persisted sitting on the bench now.

"And now that you went and attacked him, who knows what he plans to do to you; we can't protect you all the time." Snake added

When Alex still didn't answer they looked at him more closely. He was looking at them as they spoke but didn't seem to be listening.

"Alex have you heard anything we said?" Eagle asked

"Yes." Alex responded and went back to staring at the wall.

"Then why don't you answer?" Wolf snapped irritably

"I don't want to! Okay?!" Alex yelled

Fox stared at Alex curiously for a moment. "Oh shit." he exclaimed "You're claustrophobic." he half asked half stated.

Alex grimaced "Congratulations you found a name for it," he responded sarcastically "Now leave me alone."

"You sound like a spoiled brat Alex; if I didn't know better I'd say you were one. Why don't you just try and get some sleep while we figure out what to do. Maybe when you wake up you won't be such a bastard." Eagle suggested brusquely

Alex nodded, slightly shamed face and tried to get comfortable against the surprisingly cold wall. After a few minutes of Alex's shifting around, Fox who was sitting next to him, lost patience. "I'm not gonna kill you for leaning on my shoulder you know. I don't imagine that leaning that cheek against a stone wall would help you sleep and your squirming sure isn't helping me."

Alex had the presence of mind to blush before resting on Fox's sturdy but comfortable shoulder. He was asleep five minutes later.

As Alex slept, the men contemplated their situation and who these people were. It was confusing because the coordinates they had received for their investigation had been very clear and very recent and they had not reached them yet. Indeed the designated safe house had been at least another 30 minutes away. Yet these people seemed to believe that Alex was here to investigate their activities. There seemed to be a connection between the two but at this early stage they couldn't yet find it.

The men drifted back and forth between reluctantly dozing off and talking quietly amongst themselves. After a while the men were startled to hear a scream come from somewhere in the compound. Eagle glanced at Alex's sleeping purple cheeked figure in concern. The man had threatened them with horrors in store for him. Eagle shook his head miserably "You really messed this one up Cub." he whispered

"I think that man had it in for him anyway." Wolf answered following Eagle's train of thought. He nervously tapped his foot thinking. "He knows that Alex is a spy and he must think he's here to spy on him." He glanced at Alex too. "I'm really worried about this interrogation though, I don't know what they'll do."

"They're not going to be gentle that's for sure." Snake pointed out

Wolf glanced at Alex again "I've never been tortured before," he began thoughtfully "but we can't let them torture Cub." He stopped tapping his foot. "We just can't."

They heard the scream again, more agonizing this time.

"And there's no doubt that they're capable of it." Snake added afterwards

"Of course they're capable of it." Eagle exclaimed somewhat agitated "The short ugly guy looked like a regular Nazi, if they could roast babies back in the forties, a fourteen year-old is nothing."

Fox looked at Eagle "That's strange." he thought aloud "You'd think-" he was cut short by the opening of the door.

"Where's the boy?" A different man, much taller than the others, shouted causing Alex to startle awake.

Fox immediately commanded Alex to be quiet, so as not to take any chances with his smart mouth. Alex was slightly offended but didn't speak.

"What do you want with him?" Wolf demanded of the man, standing up.

"We need information he has. Get out of the way!" He tried to push past Wolf to get to Alex who had wisely remained in the corner next to Fox.

"Anything he knows we know as well." Eagle declared "You don't need him."

"Oh yeah, well we _want_ him, now move before this gets unnecessarily bloody!"

"Maybe we shouldn't resist some much." Alex suggested quietly "It might be worse."

Fox shushed him again. "Wait."

Wolf and the man struggled a bit before Wolf shoved the him back out the door causing his head to collide with the door post being as tall as he was.

"Someone is going to pay for that!" the man yelled whipping out a knife as he advanced on them again rubbing the back of his head. He pushed past Wolf anyway. "and it's not you." He added.

Fox quickly stood up. "One of us is coming with him." he announced realizing that things were about to get out of hand.

"You don't make demands." the guard barked "You are actually making it worse for him."

Upon hearing this Alex got up and went over to the man voluntarily. "I really don't want this to be any worse than is would be." he explained to his comrades when they stared at him incredulously.

The man grabbed Alex by the arm and yanked him out of the room slamming the door soundly behind them before they could protest further.

"Damn it!" Wolf yelled trying to open the door again " Damn the bloody bastard to hell!" He slammed the wall "Why the fuck didn't you let me do the talking Fox?"

"So you could get him killed out of spite! Fighting wasn't the answer Wolf." Fox shouted back fed up with Wolf's short temper "You think that man wouldn't have brought out three maybe four more guards to wrench him from us anyway and then take out their frustration on him." He poked Wolf in the chest. "How would you cope with that huh? Knowing you made it that much worse for him."

Wolf reluctantly backed down, which he rarely did and the four of them sat and anxiously waited for Alex's return. "I had to try." he answered quietly after a moment of thought "I couldn't just hand him over."

"I know what you mean." Eagle agreed patting him on the shoulder "None of us wanted to."

"But obviously fighting isn't the best way of preventing that." Fox repeated worried now about what would happen to Alex as a result of their resistance.

"Sometimes it is Fox." Snake countered in his brooding way "We just need to do it at the right time in the right way."

"Maybe." Fox reluctantly ackwoledged as they fell silent waiting for Cubs return.

* * *

Alex had been gone for a while, maybe two hours and they still hadn't heard anything. Eagle was beginning to wonder if they had moved him to a different compound altogether and left them here. He voiced these thoughts to the rest of them.

"I don't think so." Snake answered slowly "The guy wants to punish us as well."

"Punish us for what?" Wolf insisted angrily "What the hell does he think we know or have that he wants?"

"I'm thinking he's linked to the other organ-"

Snake's reply was cut short by a loud angry yell. "Just answer! You know what I'm talking about!" the shout belonged to the man whom Alex had attacked and he was obviously talking to Alex since he yelled back.

"NO I DON'T! I don't know half of the things you're asking me!"

There was some muffled cursing and Alex shouting, terror was evident in his voice as he repeatedly protested against something then screaming, loud and agonized, Alex's without a doubt. Constantly for maybe five seconds. Eagle's hands fairly shook from a mixture of fear and rage and Wolf jumped up to pound on the door.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

"Open up! Open the  FUCKING DOOR! " He continued to bang on the door till his fist was bloody but he continued without noticing. Around ten minutes later the door suddenly opened and the burly guy who they'd seen first, shoved Alex into the room where Wolf quickly caught him. His chest was bare and he seemed to be battling unconsciousness.

His skin was red and dry to the touch but very hot. Wolf picked him up seeing that he couldn't stand by himself and the warm contact apparently pained him further because he hissed in pain. He was obviously trying not to cry but as Wolf carried him a little further into the room and knelt down by Snake to lay him on the cool floor, his left hand happened to touch the floor. He immediately cried out and moved his arm to just above his chest. The men were horrified to find that in addition to his exhaustion, his left hand and wrist were badly damaged.

"Let me see it Alex." Wolf gently urged him when he insisted not to let Wolf touch his arm.

"No," Alex sobbed quietly "Let it be."

"What happened to it Cub?" Fox asked. He was trying to examine it too, but now that Alex had bumped it he had rolled away from them and was waving it constantly in an attempt to ease the pain.

"What happened Alex?" Wolf paused to calm his raging nerves "What did he do to you?"

Alex sat in the corner pressing his bare back against the wall still waving his hand looking extremely flushed. He tried to swallow and then suddenly rasped "Water; I'm so thirsty."

"We don't have any Cub." Snake answered sadly

"But I need water." Alex pleaded "Can't you get some? Please? I'm so, so thirsty."

Snake got up to yell for water whilst the others tried to tend to Alex's injured hand.

"Snake is trying to get some water Cub, now tell me what happened so I can fix it." Wolf pleaded with him.

"No!" Alex continued to cry "Leave it alone." he shook his head miserably and shifted around trying to get cool. "I'm so hot and thirsty. Why can't I have some water?" he seemed to be mildly delirious.

"We will get you the water Alex, we will, just tell me what the son of a bitch did to your hand." Wolf insisted; for his own reasons he had to know.

Alex didn't seem to hear him, he just gasped and squirmed, his eyes darting around the room but not seeming to see.

"I'm so hot and thirsty." he sighed again. He soon stopped the waving motion of his hand.

When Wolf tried to take hold of his forearm to get a closer look, Alex promptly screamed and yanked it away. "You'll make it worse. Just go away!" He stumbled to a standing position and tried pacing around. It seemed as though he was trying to get away from them.

As he faltered against the wall he seemed to regain some lucidity. "I'll never like summer again." He announced suddenly "I'm so hot and thirsty, and I can't have anything to drink." he continued hyperventilating

"I HATE him!" he suddenly exclaimed leaning against the wall. He slowly slid down the wall apparently conscious of the fact that the men were watching him wearily. He suddenly showed them his damaged hand. "He BOILED it." he cried tearlessly. "He forced my hand into boiling water and held it there." Eagle examined the burnt hand, his eyes unusually bright. They had not been able to recognize the injury because they had never seen such a bad water burn before.

"Nothing I do makes the pain go away." Alex continued. He tried to move again but immediately began to sway so Wolf steadied him against his chest to stop him from exerting himself. He pushed the boy's hair from his face as he battled unconsciousness. His skin was still hot to the touch but very dry.

"He's still burning up." Wolf commented in a broken voice with his hand on Alex's forehead.

"If he's so hot why isn't he sweating?" Eagle asked as he took off his shirt to fan him with it.

"It's because he's so dehydrated; he can't sweat anymore." Snake answered, having exhausted his efforts in trying to get water. He hadn't had much hope that they would have gotten it anyway.

Alex opened his eyes again and glanced up at Eagle, fanning him with a shirt. But with out saying anything his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

Wolf started in alarm as Alex went limp in his arms. "Alex!" He hastily checked his pulse which was weak and erratic but thankfully there. No amount of shouting would wake him up though so they concentrated on trying to cool him.

After Eagle's arms had gotten tired of fanning, Fox took over. They took turns like that to cool him down in the absence of water except Wolf. Wolf refused to put Alex down or let anyone else tend to him and the others eventually realized that it was because he felt guilty or blamed himself for letting Alex get taken and tortured in the first place.

As the hours crawled by the men took turn sleeping for about a half an hour at a time but no one could really sleep much longer than that for they were often awakened by Alex's moaning.

He was lying down with his head in Wolf's lap but he would frequently toss back and forth as his hand throbbed and burned.

After what seemed like a day, the door flew open suddenly. Fox immediately charged over to the door to bar anyone from entering. But to his surprise a small steel cup of water was thrust into his hand and the door was promptly shut again, some of the water spilling in the process.

Fox brought it over to Wolf cautiously, they were all wondering if the water was safe to drink.

"It could be poisoned." Snake pointed out

"They want to keep him alive to ask more questions." Fox countered "and they no he'll die without water."

Wolf thought about it a moment before taking the cup from Fox to feed it to Alex, who was still asleep.

"Wait!" Eagle suddenly exclaimed

"What?" Wolf asked with an unintentionally sharp edge to his voice.

"It could also be hydrogen peroxide; it won't kill him but it's no good." Eagle explained

"What?" Snake exclaimed incredulously

"If it foams in your mouth don't give it to him."

Wolf eyed Eagle suspiciously and sipped the water. The others watched him closely.

"Its water." he announced after a moment

"Good." Snake sighed

Wolf put the cup to Alex's swollen lips and got him to take a few sips. After about half of the cup Alex shakily sat up and took the cup to drink it himself. The men were relieved to see that he even seemed embarrassed by being fed, meaning he was recovering.

Fox nearly laughed in relief as Alex gave Wolf a weak glare for holding the cup for him when instead of sipping it; Alex had tried to take gulps; which would have been painful.

"I'm not-" his voice cracked because of his dry throat "I'm not a baby, Wolf." Alex finally said

Wolf grinned despite the tone of Alex's voice. "I know Cub but if you gulp that water we're going to have to treat you like one again anyway so just do as I say."

"Good to have you back among the living Cub." Eagle told him ruffling his hair gently.

"Thanks, I feel a bit better now." He gave Fox the cup with some of the water still in it.

"No more?" he asked surprised

Alex shook his head slightly as he lay down on the shirts that the men had piled in the corner. "I feel kind of queasy." A second later he got up and laid his head on Wolf's thigh instead.

"I normally wouldn't do this," he explained as he positioned his damaged hand in such a way so that he didn't have to see it, a grimace momentarily distorted his handsome features as the burning sensation surged, "But those clothes reek and I'm really REALLY tired so I hope you don't mind."

"Nor would I normally allow you Cub but considering the circumstances I think I can make an exception." Wolf responded jokingly

"Not that it's comfortable." Alex yawned "But it will work."

"Go to sleep Cub."

Alex yawned widely "What do you think I'm doing?" he countered drifting off

"Its good to see him feeling better." Eagle commented when he had fallen into a more peaceful sleep.

"Yeah, the water really helped." Fox agreed

"Speaking of which, what was that bit about hydrogen peroxide?" Snake inquired

"Some people use it as prank material." Eagle answered simply

"Like you?" Snake implied

"No, but my brothers do."

"I didn't know you had brothers." Fox said

"Yeah I have three older brothers and they're all in the military but only I made it into SAS. But the second oldest loved to prank my friends; mean pranks."

"What about you, were you ever a victim?" Wolf asked

"Of course, but he never used his more dangerous pranks on me. The reason hydrogen peroxide came to mind with the water is because of a cruel joke he played on a friend of mine back when I was 15 and my brother, Brandon was 19.

My friend, who was a greedy son of a gun come to think of it, got tricked into an insanely salty bag of chips. When he started bawling for water, Brandon gave him what seemed like water but what was actually the hydrogen peroxide you get from the drugstore. It's just like water except if you don't gulp it you'll notice a foamy, almost soapiness appear in your mouth after a moment. The problem is that after you drink it, you get these horrible bellyaches from all the gas build up. Some of it can even get into your blood vessels and you throw up all the time until it's all out of your system. Really cruel stuff. Needless to say he got punished for that one big time and he kind of stopped pranking after that.

But it just came to my mind when they suspiciously brought us a cup of something, obviously for Cub that seemed like water when he was very thirsty."

"Good point." Fox commented

"Something to remember the next time someone offers me some water." Snake decided

Wolf nodded in agreement.

* * *

Three days since Alex's first torture session. Three days seemed to have helped his battle with heat exhaustion significantly, but his hand was another subject. He had allowed the men to examine it properly and their expressions told Alex that they were trying to be optimistic about it for his sake but they actually thought it was pretty bad. Indeed Alex wouldn't be surprised if he lost it altogether. He had never felt such pain before. He was sure that his hand had cooked in that water. He shuddered for the umpteenth time thinking about it; the seconds and minutes leading up to it, replaying themselves over and over in his head.

The oppressively bright room. Being forced to stand in the overwhelming heat, his arms restrained above his head.

The questions, so many questions that he couldn't think straight enough to answer. Not knowing the answer had caused extreme frustration. Then the frustration and terror when his left arm was released and the boiling pot brought from the nearby stove for burning. His intense struggle, his terrified futile struggle against the other, bigger, silent man. His protests, the shouting, shouting NO repeatedly. His profound horror as the other man picked him up to subdue his struggling cursing all the while before the leader stuck his hand into the water. The instantaneous pain. Pain. PAIN! The hurting ran up and down his arm searing it, destroying his hand. Blessed oblivion that promised to blanket him from the pain only to be snatched away by a dirty needle. So much pain as the pot was finally removed. No escape from it, he writhed and struggled uselessly against it until they carried him away-.

"Alex, calm down, don't think about it just don't think." Fox broke through his nightmare thoughts, noticing his shivering, hyperventilating figure.

"Alex?" Fox continued to call him as tears ran down the boy's cheeks but Alex couldn't sever the images, sensations, and memories from his mind; they plagued him mercilessly. Fox eventually pulled Alex into a comforting hug against his shoulder for support but the kid didn't seem to realize that either, being trapped in the nightmare as he was.

Day four and everyone was complaining of hunger after a meager meal of a slice of bread each when the door opened again.


	3. Chapter 3

Day four and everyone was complaining after a meager meal of a slice of bread each when the door opened again. The men knew it was coming and had been preparing for it. Alex shrank into the corner out of sheer terror of it.

Two men had come this time, equipped with tasers to forcefully detach Alex from his unit again.

The members of K-unit put up an impressive fight despite their waning strength. But when the guards finally subdued them with their tasers and made their way over to Alex in the corner, the battle was lost.

Alex crouched down, determined not to go without a fight, and waited for one of the men to get within striking range before lashing out viciously at the knee, aiming for strategic weak spots rather than relying on his vanishing strength. He nearly caught the bastard but the man was able to dodge it because of Alex's slowed reflexes.

The other man made the mistake of bending over him backwards to grab him around the chest so Alex drove his elbow into the man midsection up into his diaphragm, thoroughly winding him. The second man, growing impatient grabbed him around the neck as he came out of the crouch and rammed him into the wall. Before his head smacked it though, Alex rolled across the wall to avoid the punch the man aimed at his stomach. But the second that his back was to the shorter, hot-tempered man, was enough to allow the guard to press his face to the wall cutting the maneuver short and then repeatedly slam his damaged hand against the wall until Alex sank down to the floor, his knees weakened by the onslaught of agony.

As they triumphantly dragged him from the room he grabbed a hold of Wolf's hand with his own good one trying one last time to avoid capture as his comrades tried desperately to clear the haze and act as well. Wolf held on tightly and tried to pull him back in. Alex also gripped his hand as tightly as he could so as not to lose his grip even when Wolf's faltered from another round of tasering. Wolf was consequently dragged out of the door as well since the guards didn't want any other team members to recover and resume the assault.

"You want to see the little brat get tortured, fine by me." The short tempered guard spat at Wolf, binding his partially dazed form. "I promise you that it won't be boring, as a matter of fact you can help us."

Wolf shook his head to clear it enough to take note of their surroundings, but it was a short walk down the hall to a room at the end that was apparently the torture room. The room itself was very large but there seemed to be three much smaller rooms within it; two of which were made of dirty Plexiglas and one was dark brown brick like the rest of the compound. In the area around the small rooms were chairs that were apparently bolted to the floor alternating with hand cuffs hanging from the high ceiling each mode of restraint being at least 2 meters from the other. After looking around Wolf suddenly got the impression that they were underground.

As he was being chained to one of the restraints hanging from the ceiling he noticed that the same was being done to Alex in one of the see-through rooms where he was then dowsed with water. Wolf wondered, watching carefully, what were they going to do to Alex this time but his vigilance was suddenly broken when his captor, having finished securing him, punched him in the stomach hard. Had the restraints not been there Wolf would have doubled over completely but his mid section was instead left vulnerable to the kicks that followed. When the man stopped Wolf's entire midsection was severely bruised so that he couldn't quite stand.

"That will teach you to fight back when you're in here." The man spat on him.

"I will always fight back you scum sucking low life. " Wolf growled out after spitting out a mouthful of blood. "To the death." That earned him a solid punch in the jaw that rocked his already aching head. The enraged guard was about to continue when the leader stopped him.

He was standing at the door to enter the mini room where Alex was but he paused to address Wolf.

"We need information that you all have, Wolf." The man was obviously pleased with the fact that he knew their code names. "But you all won't cooperate. Since we apparently can't separate the Wolf from his Cub, the outcome of this session will directly depend on just how much you would care to see the boy suffer; because if you don't answer my questions things will get real bad for Cub over here. Do I make myself clear?"

Wolf glanced over at Alex, who was shivering, most likely from fear and then reluctantly nodded at the man.

"Good."

He went into the room where Alex was, and closed the transparent door.

"Who do you work for Wolf?" the man asked through the surprisingly porous material.

A second's hesitation, "The SAS."

"And who does the kid work for?"

"He's just a child." Wolf remarked

The man suddenly smacked Alex across the face powerfully. "That's not what I asked!"

Wolf swore under his breath "MI6"

"Good. What is his involvement with Scorpia? How did he end up over there if he works for MI6?"

"I was never told that he was Scorpia." Wolf answered, mildly surprised by this.

"Either you don't care about the boy or else you don't get what I'm saying. What was the kid doing with Scorpia; was he an assassin, did he work undercover? WHAT was he doing with them?"

"I don't know!"

The man scowled furiously and picked up an electrical device known as a picana. Another man turn on the switch on the box it was connected to. "Now do you know?!" The leader shouted suddenly jabbing Alex in the side of his neck with it causing him to scream in surprise and then pain. "Now do you know?!"

Before Wolf could do more damage with his ignorance, Alex spoke up despite the threat of punishment if he spoke without being asked.

"He doesn't know," he gasped out in one breath "I went there myself and then worked undercover for one mission. Nobody knew about it; only MI6."

The man turned off the equipment so Alex could speak more clearly.

"Who was the director when this happened?" he demanded

"Julia Rothman," Alex managed through violently chattering teeth. Somehow they were keeping the room freezing cold and it was rapidly seeping through his bare skin.

"Does any one in Scorpia know you personally?'

Alex was shaking uncontrollably in his chains. "Everyone who did is dead."

"Really?"

A different man, an oriental, perhaps Japanese, snorted in disgust. "How do we know if this is true?"

The leader nodded "I have thought of that," He turned to Alex, whose eyes had drifted shut and slapped him in the face to wake him up. "Name those you say knew you. If they are not dead you will be, because I have no use for FIGs and I have ways of knowing."

Alex was undoubtedly confused by the term but he answered truthfully, confident that no one had come back from the dead.

"Julia Rothman, her assistant Nile, and Yassen Gregorovich."

"Check them." he ordered the Japanese man

"Back to you, Wolf." he continued

Alex stiffened

"Who sent you here?"

"MI6"

"You were sent to investigate bombings right?"

"Yes"

"Then you admit that you were not carrying the boy to Jordan to witness."

"Yes"

"A penalty for the lie." the man announced, looking for a chance to do something to Alex. He hated him from the beginning and also harbored an intense dislike for children in general.

Alex was shocked awake, screaming again as the current coursed through his cold body. When it ended he was sweating despite the cold.

"You fucking bastard. I answer your questions and you do it anyway. DAMN YOU! Damn you to hell!" Wolf yelled indignantly rattling his chains.

The guard who continually stood next to him suddenly slammed Wolf across the face with a solid plastic baton. Wolf felt two of his teeth loosen and blood well up in his mouth from biting his tongue.

The leader ignored his outburst completely. "Who is responsible for the bombings?"

"I don't know!" Wolf snapped spitting out the blood disgusted by the coppery taste of it and all the while fearing what was happening to Alex. His skin had a blue tinge to it now and you could see his breath from time to time when he breathed. He was sagging in his chains and seemed to be mostly unconscious.

The man shook his head in annoyance and went back into the room with Alex after having come out for a respite from the cold.

"Then you say that your investigation failed?"

"We didn't investigate anything yet."

The man gave the activated device to another guard who gladly used it while he came out to talk to Wolf face to face.

"Why do you insist to lie and hurt the child? If you did not investigate anything why were you headed to Jordan?"

"We weren't on our way to Jordan. We came to investigate, but we didn't do it yet."

"Lies, lies, lies."

Alex's screams had begun to fade despite the fact that the assault continued.

"Why can't you speak the truth? What is the name of the organization you found."

"We didn't find anything!" Wolf was frantic for Alex's torture to stop before they killed him

"Yes you did. That's why you were going to Jordan."

"I just told you we weren't going!"

"So if you lied about that, how do I know what is true now?"

The torture continued and Alex's body jerked silently

"If you-" the man was interrupted by Wolf, who in a frenzy of fury, mustered the strength to kick him in the stomach with both feet sending the man flying.

"Shut the fuck up you sadistic freak. We didn't look yet you so leave him alone!"

The man crashed to the floor painfully but he quickly, angrily got up and beat Wolf in a mostly one-sided fight that left him barely responsive. His head smacked the wall repeatedly in addition to the severe bruising of his mid section.

The man went back into the room were Alex was, panting with rage. "Take him down!" he barked. They unlocked the cuffs and Alex collapsed to the floor in an unconscious heap his limbs still jerking.

"Undo the other one too and send them back to the cell and don't help them. I'm finished for now." He rubbed his wrist were he had fallen on it. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Eagle, it's not going to budge; get off of the door!" Snake shouted

"It's better than sitting on my arse in the corner covering my ears!" Eagle yelled back. Before Snake could make a comeback, the sound of Alex's screaming hit them again long and continual until it finally faded away. Eagle's body fairly shook with rage. He was a hot-tempered person to begin with and he felt that unless one of the bastards presented themselves for killing soon he was going to burst. The helplessness was driving him crazy. For the moment he was channeling his anger into the door. All he had done so far was break a finger and bruise his shoulder, but he was so consumed by anger and worry that he hadn't yet noticed any of the injuries.

"You're not doing any good Jake, go sit down some where and save your strength for something good instead of wearing down the middle of the door!"

"You can just sit over there with your cold-blooded self and shutout the sound; you can be indifferent to it because you're heartless and selfish. But I can't sit and do nothing!" Eagle roared back, thoroughly infuriated by his inability to do anything and by Snake's silent, seemingly blank faced, indifference.

"The reason why you can't is because you're stupid and immature. You're too naïve to know when its time lay low and be quiet. You're just a kid! As a matter of fact you're too young to have come on this mission at all. Kids don't belong on missions like these; they end up messing up everything!" Snake shot back

Snake's remark surprised even Fox who had been trying to remain indifferent to their arguing ever since Wolf and Alex had been taken. It surprised him because although it was true that Eagle was young, only 22, he was also one of the most valuable members of the team and to be quite truthful Eagle hadn't done anything to mess up the mission. But the way Snake put it made it seems as though he actually looked down on Eagle because of his age.

Snake was the oldest member of the group. He had been in the military since he was 18 and now that he was in his early thirties he'd seen much more than Wolf and Eagle. So sometimes he though of them as inexperienced when compared to him. Sometimes he was able to give them some good advice because of it. But he was also a little rough around the edges when it came to telling people how he felt and you often founding him making a seemingly harsh statement but not regretting it.

"It's good to know how you really feel Snake." Eagle hissed, obviously hurt by what he thought was Snake's true feelings. "It's amazing what you can find out under the right- or maybe the wrong circumstances."

He turned to continue his work on the door when it suddenly swung open revealing Wolf stumbling through the doorway with an unconscious Alex clutched close to his chest. Wolf himself looked about ready to collapse as the guard behind them slammed the door shut.


	4. Chapter 4

He turned to continue his work on the door when it suddenly swung open revealing Wolf stumbling through the doorway with an unconscious Alex clutched close to his chest. Wolf himself looked about ready to collapse as the guard behind them slammed the door shut.

Fox rushed forward to relieve him of Alex without a word. But he did gasp when he felt Alex's slick icy skin.

Eagle grabbed Wolf under the arm and supported him over to the bench where Wolf leaned against the wall with his eyes closed his lips and chin were bloody. After a second he spoke in hardly decipherable English because of the awkwardness of his freshly busted tongue " ou eed u orm him up."

"What?" Fox asked while he continued to try warming Alex against his chest with his shirt around him.

"He said, you need to warm him up." Eagle translated, tending to Wolf's injuries with single minded focus, seeing that Fox had Alex and he didn't want to speak to Snake who was pacing the floor at the moment.

"What happened mate?" Eagle asked quietly, checking the bloody spot on the back of Wolf's head. Wolf sagged forward, leaning against Eagle, nearly unconscious. After it seemed as though he wouldn't answer he did, speaking very slowly to form the words despite his swelling tongue. "He… asked questions… we didn't know …the answer to. He froze… Cub… and…and electrocuted him."

Eagle nodded sympathetically, somewhat subdued in spirit by the condition of his friends. He continued his assessment of Wolf's injuries, gently leaning him back to check out the severity of his chest bruises. As he touched certain areas, Wolf hissed in pain.

"How long has he been out Wolf?" Fox asked eventually, his voice heavy with worry.

Wolf blinked a couple of times looking up at the ceiling as Eagle helped him into a lying down position on the small bench. "They …they knocked him out…with electricity… maybe two minutes..ago. When… he stopped scream they kept going…maybe half a minute more."

He paused for awhile thinking back on it.

"Just try…and warm him up." he eventually concluded "I don't know if…when he'll wake up."

Fox and Snake stared at Wolf in dismay, though he didn't see it, as they realized that Alex's unconsciousness was electrically induced. He might have collapsed from the pain but it was more likely that he had been, literally shorted out. He could have been in a coma right now for all they knew.

Fox looked down at Alex who was very slowly warming up in his arms. If you ignored the bruises ,the the halting erratic breathing and unhealthy pallor, he seemed to be comfortable, but unconsciousness through electric shock was exceptionally harsh and hypothermia on top of it was just too much. Fox redoubled his efforts to warm him fearing that there might be irreversible damage.

After a moment Wolf tried getting up but nearly collapsed again when his head started to pound. Eagle quickly came to his aid scolding him for moving. But Wolf just pursed his lips and gestured to the tiny hygiene area where he went and spat out something that sounded like teeth.

As he shuffled back to the bench he began to complain about his head at the same time that Fox called out to Snake.

"Yeah?" Snake spoke for the first time since their return, obviously worried by what they now knew of Alex's condition. His tone of voice caused Eagle to begin to regret what he had said about him earlier.

"I need help warming him. One body alone is not gonna cut it."

It was true that Fox had imparted enough heat to Alex's hypothermic body to be shivering himself. He handed Alex over to Snake. "He's not going to get much warmer from me."

Snake nodded gravely taking over the important task that Fox had started.

"What were you saying Wolf?" Fox apologized

"No'hing really, jus my head." Wolf answered his speech garbled by his swelling tongue.

Fox nodded sympathetically

"Looks like it took a couple of pretty hard knocks." Eagle commented

"Yeah, its 'imes ike his whehn ice packs are really hice." Wolf sighed in response

"I hear that." Fox answered "But the only ice around is Cub's cold body." He glanced over at Snake who at the moment was off in a world by himself as he was sometimes prone to do. Alex looked a little bit better but only a little. They needed to warm him more aggressively if he was to get better.

"That's a good idea Fox." Eagle said suddenly "Alex is super cold and Wolf is super achy. It could work."

Snake looked at Eagle incredulously but said nothing.

"Are you seriously proposing that Wolf use Alex for an icepack?" Fox exclaimed

"and warm him in the process." Eagle added reasonably "If he doesn't get some real body heat from us soon he's not going to make it and you know it."

Fox didn't answer but looked at Alex thoughtfully.

"We have to, and embarrassment isn't an issue; his life depends on it; there's no real excuse." Eagle continued

Wolf nodded ever so slightly and got up from off the bench.

"You're right." Fox conceded

"It is a good idea." Snake agreed quietly "We can take turns and see if it helps, because if we don't do something more aggressive than this we're going to be beating up ourselves about his death when he dies of hypothermia."

Snake gently laid Alex down on the pile of discarded shirts and Wolf laid down next to him. He couldn't help but gasp when Alex's freezing body touched his and he was extremely worried by Alex's continued unresponsive state. His face hardened as he made himself as comfortable as possible and made sure Cub was close enough to get warm. He knew that when he got the chance certain people were going to suffer for what they had done. But right now they needed to keep Alex alive more than anything.

The room was eerily quiet after Wolf fell asleep asides from Snake periodically checking on Alex to see how he was coming along which seemed well.

After awhile Snake noisily cleared his throat.

"The idea you came up with was good Eagle." he began lamely. Eagle looked up from his brooding and interrupted.

"Before you continue Snake I need to apologize; I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."

"I know you didn't mean to Eagle but do you have to have your way all the time. You always interrupt." Snake responded coolly

"Sorry. It's not about having my way, I just tend to be pushy sometimes and you allow yourself to be pushed.

Snake raised an eyebrow skeptically "It still boils down to getting your way." He insisted "Just listen will you?"

Eagle nodded

"The things I said earlier were not conceived purely out of anger but they were expressed in anger and regardless of what you might want to say to feel macho, I know I hurt your feelings and I'm sorry for that."

Eagle nodded again more guarded this time.

"Sometimes I truly do think that you're too young to do some things, which you are." Snake continued as Eagle and Fox listened attentively "It just seems sometimes like you're too oblivious to the things that happen out there; too naïve to be in the midst of it. Wolf too actually, but he's much less trusting or maybe optimistic than you are. And then you often let your pigheadedness get in the way so you won't listen either.

But on the other hand I should never have called you stupid or immature because you're none of those. Sometimes I'm actually jealous of your creative wit." he laughed nervously "So, I don't look down on you, because although you're young, you're not stupid. So I guess what I'm trying to say, in way too many words, is that I'm sorry."

Eagle chuckled lightly and sighed "You sure have a unique way of apologizing Snake, but I'm glad to know that you don't think I'm utterly worthless."

"As for my apology, which is long over due." he continued "I shouldn't have called you selfish or heartless or anything of the sort because I know that you look out for your teammates and you do care, you just deal with stress in a different way and I ought to respect that. We can't afford to be bickering like kids when there's so much at stake here and I should have thought of that before I opened my mouth to insult you." He outstretched his hand "Truce?"

"Truce?" Snake questioned "We aren't even at war."

"A constructive argument from time to time can be healthy you know." Eagle explained "As long as we don't let it get in between us."

Snake shrugged and shook his hand but the slightly lightened mood gradually faded away as they returned to watching their injured team mates sleep. Now after an hour of warming, Alex looked significantly better but he still hadn't shown any sign of a return to consciousness; not even a twitch.

It suddenly occurred to Snake that if Wolf had taken many hard knocks to the head, he would slip into unconsciousness too.

He voiced his concerns to the other two men and went over to Wolf to try and wake him up.

"Wolf," Snake whispered at first as he hovered over the sleeping figures. "Wolf?" he tried gently shaking Wolf's shoulder; nothing happened. When he shook it harder Wolf startled awake. "Wha'?!" he exclaimed tiredly with blood shot eyes and clenched fists.

"You need to wake up mate,"

"Why?!" he protested loudly, obviously irritated.

"If you-" he broke off at the other worldly glare that Wolf gave him.

"Let me." Eagle offered

"Be my guest." Snake backed off as Wolf put his hand over his eyes and ears.

"You need to try not to fall asleep in case you go unconscious." Eagle explained

His words were met with no response and he thought that Wolf had gone back to sleep. When he tried to lift Wolf's arm from off his eyes to check, Wolf aimed to thump him before growling to himself.

Eagle frowned stepping back "You need to wake up Wolf and I suggest you don't bite the hand that's feeding you."

"Keep yuh futhin han tho yuh sewf!" Wolf yelled back

"Get up and stop being so soft."

"Now you've gone and done it." Fox partially joked but more chided. It was well known among the members of K-unit that Wolf's temper was unmatched except by Snake's and Eagle's insensitive remark had been uncalled for. He often spoke before thinking; it was a fault of his.

Wolf glared at Eagle for a moment looking like a wounded wolf who thought you were responsible for his injury. Then he sat up, swaying slightly as the arm he was using to support himself shook violently.

"You tew me to lie dowh anh keep im warm den you say dohn fall aseep. How duh hew cahn I lie dowh and noth seep, huh?!"

Snake felt the corner of his lips twitch in an approaching smile because of Wolf garbled speech.

"Chill out Wolf, we don't want you to go into a coma, geez!" Eagle cited the worse case scenario indignantly.

"I cooh of been ihn a futhin coma already yuh doofus! thoo dimwiths come thoo wake me up afther I seep, an den fuss abouth coma! How isth thah smarth?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Eagle demanded. Wolf's outburst had bewildered him to say the least.

"My head feews yike a functioning anviw Eagle!

At this, Fox and Snake reluctantly started to laugh. It wasn't nice but Wolf's baby language mixed with curses was somewhat amusing. Wolf laid down again next to Alex with his arm over his eyes.

"Cut it out." Eagle snapped at Snake and Fox. He walked over to Wolf again looking worried.

"It's not like Wolf to carry on like this; maybe it's not just a headache anymore."

He knelt down beside Wolf again and checked his forehead; strangely he didn't protest.

"He does have a fever." He announced "but it doesn't seem too bad." He checked on Alex too before straightening up. "Sorry mate" he tried apologizing.

Wolf just grunted miserably and waved him away "Leave me be" he moaned quietly.

Eagle shrugged and sat back down on the bench.

"I hope it's not anything serious." Fox wondered. He and Snake had sobered down after Eagle's worried expression

"We need to simply get out of here." Snake interjected fiercely "If we don't someone is going to die."

"If they're asking questions that we don't have the answer to then that might be sooner than later." Fox pointed out

Eagle nodded "We need to start looking for a way out."

His comrades silently agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

After a day Alex was still unconscious with no sign of improvement. He was mostly warm now but his fingers and toes remained stubbornly icy. The fact that he was warm yet not conscious left the three men very worried about his recovery from his latest torture session.

They continued to watch him closely to find anything that could prove their darker thoughts wrong. They also had to watch Wolf too. Despite their numerous efforts to keep him awake, he did eventually slip into unconsciousness and had been that way for over six hours now. His fever had grown worse and his remaining teammates were beginning to fear that they had a very real crisis on their hands with no sign of reprieve or rescue. Each of the men simply took turns checking on the two sick ones to help them anyway they could.

Alex awoke slowly, trying to hold on to the shallow feeling of bliss he felt slipping away. He felt relatively good considering what he had just been through and he assumed that it was just numbness and that the pain would soon resurface. Therefore he wasn't in a hurry to wake up. Absentmindedly he moved his cold feet around in search of something warm to touch them to as he thought back on what had happened in the last session.

He felt his feet touch something surprisingly warm like a hot water bottle and settled them there to warm his toes.

Alex was beginning to really wonder why these men wanted to know so much about their investigation. Apparently the man thought that they were here to check him out but Alex knew that it was obvious that they weren't. When the sadistic guy and his thugs had come out to ambush them on the road, K-unit's Envoy had already past the entrance to their freakish lair if the direction they had come in was any indication.

Alex thought about it carefully. He had been sent along with the rest of k-unit to follow a lead that they had for the culprits of the bombings back home which had killed a total of 11 people. MI6 thought that it was the handiwork of suicide bombers despite the fact that no bodies were found that could conceivably be those of suicide bombers. But MI6 was basing their assumption off of the fact that the bombs were not detonated by remote either. The only and most probable suspect had been a Muslim group here in the Bahraini desert. But these guys that had captured them had nothing to do with what was going on yet they seemed as though they wanted to be a part of it.

The questions they were asking also led Alex to believe that what ever it is that they would have found out at that safe house would have been of some importance to them.

Alex suddenly heard a pained groan from behind him and his 'hot water bottle' shifted. He was embarrassed to discover that his warmth had been coming from a pair of feet and upon rolling over he realized that the feet belonged to Wolf. Alex immediate snatched his feet away but soon realized that his icy toes hand actually been of help to Wolf because the man was quiet feverish. That was why his feet were so unusually warm.

Alex decided to examine his teammate properly for a moment. His bare chest was disgusting colored by widespread black bruises in addition to the painfully swollen one on his left cheek.

He had his arm draped over his eyes and he seemed to be muttering to himself. He was also hyperventilating slightly and from time to time he would groan or shift uncomfortably.

Alex hesitantly touched his cold hand to the man's forehead, which was burning up as he had thought. Alex also noticed that his own arm was sluggish to respond to him.

Alex sighed sadly and took his hand away. Perhaps all of this could have been prevented had he been more professional and less childish when they had first been captured. Most likely the response Wolf would have given their captors, had he gotten the chance, would have been enough to free them before ever really being prisoner. No doubt Alex's outburst had confirmed the men's suspicions about his real identity and now no one knew where they were, whether they had reached their destination or if they hadn't, who had taken them. How could they hope for rescue if no one knew they needed it?

For the time being, Alex rested his hand on Wolf's forehead once again knowing that the gesture granted the man a slight reprieve from his discomfort.

About ten minutes later after Alex had already warmed his right hand completely and taken it away; Wolf groaned again and groggily opened his eyes. He was quite frightened to find Alex staring at him steadily with impossibly large, sad eyes. He closed his eyes and looked again to see if the boy had looked away but he was still staring steadily with no difference; almost as though he was looking beyond him actually.

He was glad to see that Alex had awoken but the unblinking staring was unnerving him.

"Why the hell are you staring at me?" Wolf demanded without thinking

Alex quickly looked away without saying anything looking surprised and Wolf immediately felt bad for his attitude despite his irritation.

He tried to ease the harshness of his first remark with a second one.

"Um, how are you feeling?" He noticed some improvement in the condition of his tongue meaning he didn't sound so dumb when he spoke but the thunderous pounding of his head had increased if anything.

Alex shrugged but didn't speak or look up.

"Why aren't you talking?" he continued in his usual insensitive way, enhanced by his headache.

Alex gestured to his throat, closing his eyes for a moment.

Wolf mentally berated himself for forgetting that all the screaming that Alex had been forced to do would have no doubt damaged his throat.

"Does everything else work?" he sighed.

Alex did a mental assessment of himself before answering with a simple shaking of the head. But he didn't elaborate on what exactly didn't work.

Eagle suddenly started awake from where he sat on the bench. He was supposed to have been on watch to make sure Alex wasn't suddenly taken in their sleep, but he had fallen asleep eventually. When he noticed that Alex and Wolf were awake and relatively fine he smiled. "Looks like everyone got a good-" he was promptly silenced by a chorus of 'shut up's from Wolf, and Snake who had also awakened. Wolf was still angry at Eagle for apparently worsening his headache and calling him soft. Snake was angry with him for falling asleep while he was supposed to be on watch.

Eagle was momentarily stunned by the duet of harsh responses. But he quickly brushed it off and went to check on Alex without further comment.

"Don't mind them." Eagle said as he helped Alex into a sitting position. "They just can't find anything nice to say." He checked over Alex trying to be cheerful. Feeling his arms and shoulders to see if he was warm and making him move his limbs around to make sure they were functional. "After two days of worrying us to death you finally decide to wake up. You have to stop doing that." Alex looked up at him sharply but didn't comment

As Eagle examined Alex, Fox chided the other two. "That was kind of harsh you know. We're all in one piece so the least we could do is be civil; the enemy is on the other side of the door you know."

Snake just shrugged "I'll just remember not to put him on watch again." And Wolf didn't respond at all.

"So how exactly do you feel?" Eagle asked only peripherally acknowledging the other men.

Alex shook his head and gestured to his throat again.

"You can't talk?" Eagle asked worriedly

Alex nodded slightly

"Can't or won't?"

Alex just shrugged

"Well why don't you try; at least you'll know for sure."

Before Alex could answer, Wolf interjected "Why don't you leave him alone. You never know when to quit it and give a person some space to breathe; always fussing over them at the wrong time like a blasted mother hen."

"Shut up Wolf!" Snake cut him off extremely annoyed "Just because you don't feel well doesn't mean you should try and drag everyone else down with you; he's just trying to help. At least he's getting somewhere; when you tried all you did was mess things up."

The room was eerily silent after this declaration. No doubt the stress was getting to them all and Snake had been known to say some pretty harsh things before, but that was mean. Alex quietly broke the uncomfortable silence with a raspy whisper. "No. He did what he could; things just didn't work out well it's not his fault." He swallowed to try and speak more clearly but his throat was too raw so he reluctantly fell silent again.

Wolf looked stunned for a moment by Snake's remark and unforgiving expression before he reluctantly agreed, "No Cub, he's right actually, I did mess up." Wolf corrected him sadly, suddenly subdued "and it has cost us, you especially. Now that I got myself busted in the head doesn't give me the right to blame anybody else either so I'll just shove off and sleep or something. Don't mind me."

It pained Alex to hear Wolf so sad and he had known that Wolf was eventually going to adopt that frame of mind but he also knew that nothing he said now was going to change his mind after what Snake had said and he just didn't have the strength. After a moment Wolf apologized to Eagle and then painstakingly rolled onto his other side, facing the wall eventually falling asleep

The room remained gloomy and quiet after that.

After two more days the atmosphere was much the same. Everyone was depressed and quiet. They knew that at any minute those men would be back to take Alex away again but they did not have any idea when it would end or whether they would be rescued at all. It was very disheartening.

Alex soon found out that he was really only stiff from the electric shock session and that the particular stiffness in his neck would wear off if he exercised it. So from time to time he would walk around the tiny room and talk to Fox who was the only one of the men who hadn't seemed to have lost all hope.

Again, Fox watched as Alex shuffled around the room slightly chuckling from time to time at the insane emptiness of their stomachs. When he had finished his third circuit, careful to avoid Wolf's fingers which were in the way again, he passed Eagle and Snake who were each absorbed in some sort of mundane task they had set for themselves and came up to Fox again who was observing him carefully.

"What's so funny Cub?" He asked

"Nothing really Fox, I was just listening to our stomachs growling and the sound was so absurd I had to laugh. I've never been so hungry in my life."

"Neither have I Cub." Fox agreed watching him go around again. "Come here" he called after a moment. Alex slowly came around without protest although he didn't want to. He knew Fox wanted to check him over again. He did it often and it was sometimes annoying but he knew Fox only meant well.

When he stopped in front of Fox who was sitting on the bench, Fox grasped Alex's wrist with his index finger and thumb and held his arm up in the air. He was genuinely worried not only because of how thin Alex was becoming, but he had also noticed that from time to time during his sleep he would pause breathing completely, sometimes for up to ten seconds. Then he would gasp and struggle for breath before finally going back to sleep again. He had dark circles around his eyes now from the lack of adequate sleep and he was surprisingly light.

"You're losing weight fast." Fox observed, noting how prominent his ribs were and the thinness of his arms. ", faster than the rest of us." he released Alex who shrugged at his remark. "That's to be expected." he responded

"You're right" Fox agreed "But we shouldn't allow it. The next time we get some bread take my slice; you need it more than I do."

Alex was silent for a moment as he made another circuit. He was hungry enough to accept the offer but not at Fox's expense.

"No." He said simply

"Alex, don't be difficult." Fox began but Alex cut him off

"I'm not taking your share Fox." His tone was final

"Well then you can have one quarter from each of us and then you'll have an extra slice anyway and we'll all have made a small sacrifice instead." Eagle suddenly interjected with detached finality

"Okay" Alex eventually agreed before returning to his pacing.

Alex was beginning to really worry about Wolf. They were all eating the meager rations of a slice of bread each with Alex getting his extra portion as promised from the day before. But Wolf just sat in the corner with sort of glazed eyes, refusing to eat, or talk or move for that matter. Alex found out from the other men that Wolf had been suffering from an intense headache. Apparently it had gotten much worse.

Alex quickly finished his musty tasting bread and went over to him. When Wolf didn't acknowledge him, he knelt down in front of him and called. "Wolf, what's wrong, aren't you hungry; you can't not be hungry unless you've got a camel hump we don't know about?" he tried to get a response from the man

Wolf focused on him for a second and grimaced but didn't answer.

"Exactly where hurts Wolf?" Alex insisted seriously as the other men watched

Wolf frowned at him miserably in annoyance but gestured to the back of his head near the top and then the whole thing. "It feel like its going to explode." he whispered before waving him away to go back to daydreaming or whatever it was he was doing.

Alex got up, dissatisfied. "Do you think he might have fractured his skull?" he whispered cautiously.

Fox and Snake glanced at each other before answering; Eagle was also watching them intently.

"We think that may be it." Fox answered cautiously

"And?" Eagle insisted

Snake dropped his voice to a whisper so that if Wolf was listening he wouldn't hear them

"I think a headache like that means that he- he's bleeding in his head."

Alex stared at him with a horrified look on his face.

"You mean he may be bleeding in his brain?" Eagle asked suddenly very scared for his friend

Alex looked back and forth between the men as Fox answered again "I think so."

"Isn't that fatal?" Alex persisted

"I'm sure if you catch it soon enough then it's not." Snake answered with a sigh

Alex shook his head and went over to Wolf again seeing the double meaning in Snake's words immediately. Wolf looked at him this time and tried to smile. "I'm not going to die any time soon Cub." he said apparently having heard the conversation "It's just a headache; a bad, bad headache." He shifted against the wall and tried to get up. Just doing that must have hurt though because he had to close his eyes grimacing all the while, stumbling in the process. When it seemed as though he was about to collapse again Alex grabbed his arm and help him up completely. Once he was standing Wolf glanced at Alex seemingly annoyed for a second but then the corner of his lips twitched in a small smile.

"Thanks Cub; I guess I needed that." He said quietly, his words slurring slightly as he shuffled over to the bench with the bread on it.

"No problem." Alex whispered to his retreating back

Alex was considering a plan to tell his torturers to let his comrades go in exchange for information but that was hard to do when he didn't know what they wanted. Still this could not continue. As he watched the guys savor their bread and swarm Wolf with questions about his health, Alex gradually built up the nerve to tell them about it.

Before he got to say anything though, Eagle noticed his thoughtful expression. "What are you thinking about mate?" he asked

"Well, I was um," Alex began hesitantly "wondering if-" He was interrupted by the sound of Wolf retching in the urinal.

When Wolf reemerged Eagle sighed and asked him if he was alright.

Wolf mouthed 'no' and lay back down in the corner with his hand over eyes.

Eagle watched him for a moment, his face etched with worry before glancing at the others meaningfully and sighing again.

"What were you saying Cub?" Eagle eventually continued sounding even more depressed

"Nothing Eagle." Alex sighed. He didn't think that now was the right time to speak, or maybe he was just stalling for time in case they actually accepted the idea, which was highly unlikely but still…

"Really?" Snake asked, sitting down next to him. "It sounded like you were about to tell us about some idea you had; we're all open to ideas."

Alex just leaned his head back against the wall trying to fight down a wave of despair that threatened to overwhelm him. The way his stomach rolled and tumbled in a mixture of hunger and angst was sickening and the dread he had for the next time those men walk through the door to get him again was very real. When he sat around and talked to his comrades now he felt like he was awaiting the return of the boogiemen. Boogie men from Hell that were coming to break his bones and fry his nerves if he couldn't answer their questions. The fear, the terror, was very real and there was no one to run to, nowhere to hide to escape them because everyone who could help would be hurt as well; like Wolf.

Snake suddenly squeezed his shoulder to cheer him up. "Don't worry Cub; no one is going to die in here. Not you, not Wolf, not any of the rest of us either, we're not gonna let that happen. I'm not going to let anybody die here, Understand? So don't be so sad while there's life there's hope 'cause we can still think. When you give up is when the enemy really has you."

Alex smiled despite himself but before he could respond, the door opened with a bang that was echoed by the sudden pounding in his chest.

Three men walked in at the same time that K-unit simultaneously stood up minus Wolf who slowly sat up watching intently.

One of the men was the leader himself and he looked angry.

"All of you are coming this time and if you resist," the man barked looking meaningfully at Wolf who still hadn't risen "I can guarantee that somebody is going to die today. Get up!" he snarled at Wolf

Wolf cursed under his breath and slowly rose but he stumbled once he was standing and had to hold on to the wall for support.

Alex suddenly didn't like they way how the leader was looking at Wolf; with narrowed eyes as though he had just realized something and the slow wicked grin that formed on his face was revolting.

"I got you good last time didn't I?" the man gloated seeing Wolf trying to fight off the dizziness he felt.

The rest of men stood around waiting wearily as the leader continued to taunt Wolf into responding.

The man suddenly shoved Wolf in the chest so that he nearly fell to the floor on his rear and laughed. "You're pathetic." the man smirked. Alex unconsciously held his breath. "You can't even fight back."

Wolf stared at the man with an almost feral glare for a moment before suddenly leaping at him with an angry yell, punching him in the face repeatedly and kneeing him in the stomach twice and once in the crutch.

When the other two men finally pulled Wolf away, the leader-man had a splintered nose and he was holding one eye shut. He glared at Wolf, who was staring back, with his one good eye, but before he could say a word Wolf yelled at him, shoving him in the chest with unexpected force. "You haven't gotten ANYBODY except yourself fucking cornered in a goddamn box you bloody maggot! And if I don't make it out of here alive I'm gonna make damn sure you don't either; not in less than a dozen fucking pieces! You here me?! You're NOTHING!" Wolf spat in the man's face struggling powerfully as the two other henchmen held him back.

The leader man swiped his hand across his nose as he tried to stop the continuous flow of blood from his distorted nostrils and wipe the spit from his face. When he moved his hand away from his eye the area around it looked weird as though one of Wolf's punches had damaged the bone underneath it and the eye itself was extremely bloodshot. Wolf stood there staring at him, his breath coming in great rapid gasps and he looked just about ready to collapse again.

The man suddenly charged forward and pushed Wolf into the wall. Miraculously his head did not make contact with it though.

"You are going to die in this forgotten little hellhole. I'm going to kill you myself slowly and painfully and after I get the information I need, I'm going to kill every last one of your pathetic teammates too and NO ONE is going to stop me!"

Then before Wolf could say another word he went through the door to clean himself up, ordering his men to escort them to the torture room. Before he was properly out of the room, Snake went over to Wolf, who looked as though he was losing consciousness, ignoring the other two men who tried to stop him.

"You really should learn to control your temper Ry," Snake whispered as he slipped his arm under Wolf's shoulder to help him stand up. "You're gonna kill yourself, is that what you want? Just because you can't ignore a stupid remark."

As the other men herded the rest of K-unit out of the room, Snake tried to help Wolf to follow them but Wolf couldn't seem to find the strength to stand up.

Snake swallowed the lump in his throat and gave him his full support practically dragging him out the door.

"Are you trying to leave us without a leader, huh? You know you're not in a condition to fight. You could have saved your strength for something better than this. I know you're smarter than that." Snake scolded him as they inched down the hall. "You're too hot headed for your own damn good that's the problem, just like Eagle."

"You have to take over Snake." Wolf suddenly slurred out

"What?!" The statement caught Snake off guard. Everyone knew that Wolf was stubborn and hardheaded and he never admitted defeat until he really and truly was subdued. Snake's surprise was soon replaced by anger and denial.

"Just shut up Wolf." Snake answered immediately not wanting to believe it "Don't even start. No one is going anywhere. You hear me? I made a promise to Cub, that I wasn't letting anyone kick the bucket, and I always keep my promises. You hear? No one is going anywhere!" He felt the stubborn lump in his throat grow larger as his voice broke for a moment.

"Then you're just going to have to unpromise him Snake because I don't think I can keep this up any longer; I'm too tired. I'm just too weak. Now I can't even protect my team Snake, I can't keep leading in this demented way. You have to promise-"

Snake felt tears stinging the back of his eyes as they neared the dreaded room but he did not let them fall.

"If you're tired then sleep Ry, get a little rest while we think things over and when you wake up you'll probably feel better. You just over exerted yourself right now. You can't give up 'cause that's when you're done; you told me that. Don't you practice what you preach?"

Wolf took a while answering "If I sleep, I know I'm not going to wake up Sky; ever."

Snake didn't get to respond because they had entered the room now and two different men had grabbed Wolf to secure him to the same type of chains, hanging from the ceiling that he'd been restrained in before. They did the same to Snake.

On either side of him, seated in one of the bolted chairs was Eagle and Fox. Alex had already been chained up in one of the transparent rooms and the leader man, looking partially cleaner, came storming in from a different entrance and entered the room where Alex was, slamming the door behind him. A large pot of water sat on a metal table near by him billowing steam into the room fogging up the walls. The thought of what it was for made Snake feel sick to his stomach.


	6. Chapter 6

After an hour, the questions continued to fly. But thankfully the man seemed to lay off of questions about an organization they had never gotten the chance to investigate.

Fox had even been able to pass off some plausible false information but now it seemed as though the man was headed in that direction again.

"Where did the bombings occur?" he asked Snake suddenly

"Why the hell does that matter to you?" Eagle interjected "Why would you want to know so much about a group that has nothing to do with you?"

"You sure have a lot to say when not a fucking soul was talking to you!" The man yelled at him "When I do ask you something I hope you talk as much."

The leaderman repeated the question for Snake but Eagle interrupted again, more annoyed than before.

"You still didn't answer my question." He snapped

"Eagle will you shut up." Snake growled knowing that if he didn't then he was about to cause problems but Eagle completely ignored him.

"I am the only one asking questions around here." The man barked but Eagle was strangely unphased.

"What kind of interrogation is this anyway?" Eagle continued "You sound more like you need us to fill you in on the morning paper. If you don't have anything worth asking then why don't you let us go?"

For whatever reason the leaderman ignored Eagle altogether and although Eagle looked royally pissed, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

The man asked Snake the question for the last time to which Snake answered truthfully.

His next questions were aimed at Alex deliberately.

"What type of bombs were they; remote sensor or suicide?"

Alex shifted around trying to relieve the pressure on his damaged wrist. "I don't know."

"You don't know anything do you, you worthless child." he spat "What does everyone think they were?"

"I would know what everyone thought if they had told me. I didn't have time run a poll" Alex snapped back; annoyed by the man's comment for some reason.

The man punched Alex in the stomach solidly causing him to hiss in pain.

"I don't want your lip, you little piece of shit! What were you told by those who sent you?"

Alex's wheezing filled the hollow sounding room as he tried to catch his breath.

"MI6 thinks its suicide bombers." He eventually managed

"I see." He suddenly turned to Wolf who looked barely conscious but was still listening.

"I haven't asked you anything in a while. With as ignorant as you are Cub here is finally going to suffer. Your other friends over here were so informative I didn't get to do anything to the kid."

Wolf didn't respond to anything that he said so the man came right up to him to antagonize him further.

"Doesn't sound like you want to know a damn thing!" Eagle shouted suddenly, rattling his chair on its loose bolts. "You're just an immature bastard who's got a beef with a child!"

The man ignored Eagle again and continued to taunt Wolf with threats of what he would do to Alex if he didn't answer. Since Wolf still wouldn't even look at him, the man grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. Wolf was just able to stifle a groan.

"You don't fool me." He whispered harshly in Wolf's ear. "You think you're slick, you think you can play dumb and sick and I'll forget about you, but you're wrong. I know that you're holding back and I will continue to torture that boy until he dies unless you tell me what you know and if that doesn't work I'll continue with the rest of your team until there's no one left. No amount of loyalty to your damn country is worth all of their deaths is it?!"

Wolf looked at him with a strange expression in his eyes but he still said nothing.

The man released his grip on his hair and was mildly surprised to find that his fingers came away bloody.

"What is the name of the group whom you were sent to spy on?" he suddenly asked heading back to Alex's prison.

Wolf was quiet for awhile as he fought to remember, to save Alex from some of the unnecessary pain but his head hurt terribly and his mind was a haze of confusion. He couldn't pull the thoughts together.

After a few more moments he heard Alex yell in pain. Snake looked at Wolf worried.

"Just answer Wolf." Fox called, who was about 2 meters directly to Wolf's right. He didn't know how bad Wolf's condition had become.

Wolf just rattled his chains in frustrated confusion, "I'm trying to remember." he slurred out but the man slashed Alex across the chest again anyway. Alex's chest was quickly covered with blood. The cuts went deep, not like the surface wound of a razor but more like the strike of a dagger.

The second slash was particularly painful because it went diagonally across his old bullet wound; from his right clavicle almost to the left side of his hips. Now every breath burned.

The man grabbed Alex by his hair, "You had better get that leader of yours to open his damn mouth and speak because if he doesn't you're going to die real soon!"

Alex gasped, trying to catch his breath, which had been snatched away by the pain. He looked at Wolf whose expression was agonized to say the least. His eyes showed just how sorry he was, how much he wished he could somehow take away all this pain that he had indirectly caused but they also said how fearful he was. Alex could see real fear, terror even, in Wolf's eyes and Snake, looking on as well, could tell that it was because he could feel himself slipping away and he knew it was because he was dying.

Alex felt tears well up in his eyes as he saw the man grab the picana again and he knew that Wolf was blaming himself completely but he understood Wolf's situation. He didn't blame him in the least. Instead he braced himself for the pain he knew would soon come.

"Answer the damn question!" the man demanded

Wolf managed to say that he couldn't remember but of course it did no good. The man was so frustrated with this lack of progress, he turn the picana up to the highest it could go and jabbed the thing into Alex's back, right between the shoulder blades.

The pain that Alex felt was like none he had felt so far and the scream that ripped from his throat was so very tormented that Fox felt wetness on his cheeks despite himself.

Snake squirmed in his chains shouting the answer to the man above the screaming despite the threat of extreme punishment that had been made very clear at the beginning of the session if they spoke out of turn.

The leaderman stopped the assault but Alex continued to scream for a little while longer from the intensity of the electric voltage in his body.

"Their name was اخوه في الله (Brothers in the Lord)! Snake shouted again. "If all you want is the information ask somebody who can answer DAMN IT!"

"What is their next target?" The man demanded without turning around or putting down the torture device.

"We don't know!" Snake answered in extreme annoyance

Eagle lost his temper again when he saw the man move towards Alex.

"How the hell do you expect us to know when you never even let us past your fucking FRONT DOOR!" he shouted

"Shut the hell up when I'm not talking to you!"

The Japanese man who had been around in the session before turned to Eagle with an evil glare, pulling out a gun. "If you speak out again when no one has acknowledged you I will cause you a great deal of pain with this that you won't be able to forget in a hurry."

Eagle growled and rattled his chair violently but said nothing.

"You," the man yelled at Snake "answer the question and don't give me any bullshit about not knowing 'cause I don't believe it!"

"Believe what you want then but we didn't get there!" Snake snapped rapidly losing patient now

"You answer then." He directed at Fox

"If we were all together in the same godforsaken truck when you ambushed us, how the hell am I gonna know when he doesn't!?" Fox growled

"Then we'll head back to good ole Wolf." He marched back to the spot where Wolf was practically hanging, gesturing for the Japanese operate and the burly man from the first day to follow him.

"Unchain him and stand by in case he tries anything funny." He barked at them

Wolf nearly fell to the ground once he was free but he managed to catch himself. It was becoming clear that the confusion, pain and tiredness, even numbness now, in his limbs could only mean one thing and he was afraid of it; truly afraid despite his portrayal of fearlessness when he was with his teammates.

He realized that he was going to die of this bleed in his brain and if things continued like this no one would know. He would die a lonely pathetic death at the hands of a sadistic fool and no one would know what he had endured before finally giving in.

He tried to ease the shame of the moments that would follow by standing up as straight and as tall as he could.

"Maybe I need to bring you up to the torture section too. You know, right next to your little buddy; would that work?" the man taunted but Wolf made no response

"What is their next target?" the man asked slowly, getting to the point.

Wolf took a moment forming his response "We don't know bull about that group of people."

The leader man yelled in frustration and grabbed Wolf around the neck pushing him up to the wall. "How can you not know! What sort of investigation have you carried out that can't even provide your bosses with that basic piece of information? Is that how inadequate you all are?" he growled out as he squeezed. He then rammed his forearm up against Wolf throat to more effectively choke him.

"What makes you think that your country is worth so much fucked up loyalty that you would die and let your friends die to preserve it?" the man didn't seem to realize that Wolf was completely unable to answer as he violently struggled against him trying to breath until the two other men held him down.

"I don't understand it." The leaderman spat as Wolf stopped struggling all together and his eyes rolled back in his head. He stepped back in disgust and the rest of K-unit watched in petrified horror as the two men let Wolf fall first to his knees and then to the floor. His eyes were closed and he did not move.

"You disgust me." The man spat on him

The man went back to Alex after telling the two men to leave him there on the ground. When he came back into the room, Alex's eyes were over flowing with tears of utter shock.

"What did you do?!" Alex screamed

"I killed him, now you had better answer the question before I kill you."

"What good did that do!?" Alex wailed glancing at Wolf continually hoping he would get up, but his comrade didn't move.

"In case you haven't noticed yet I'm not in this for the good of anything. Now answer the fucking question!"

Alex glared at him with furious red rimmed eyes. The sadness he had just felt for Wolf's death was being consumed by intense animosity for this man in a completely different way from the ever present hatred he had for him as their torturer. Now instead of wanting the man dead he wanted to kill him. Alex knew that, had he been loose, after a small exertion he would smile down at the man dead on the floor with multiple knife wounds to the neck with no remorse whatsoever.

"Go fuck yourself you asrehole! I'm not answering anything more!" Alex cursed furiously

When the man came up to him to smack him across the face, Alex let lose a tirade of kicks that slightly bruised the man's midsection. When the other two men came over to help him as he was doubled over, he waved them away. "You little rat!" he shouted straightening up.

He punched him in the chest right over his fresh wounds and the old bullet scar driving the blow hard. The combined pain of the two wounds and the pressure exerted on his heart initiated a sudden violent struggle for air. Eagle gripped the handle of his chairs in desperation seeing Alex struggle as though he was being smothered.

The wheezing sound was almost unbearable and his face was beginning to turn blue. After what seemed like forever he coughed vigorously and what ever had happened seemed to pass but apparently Alex had not learned his lesson yet.

As the man started to circle him in agitation apparently trying to think of a different tactic altogether, Alex kicked out again tripping him. The boy actually seemed to have momentarily lost his sense of reason because the look on his face when the man crashed to the floor was entertained to say the least and he didn't bother remedying that when the man jumped up with a fiendish expression on his face.

"If you think that because your leader is gone then you're the new trouble maker, you are making a sad mistake. I'll teach you what happens to little trouble makers."

"I don't care." Alex stated defiantly.

"Oh really?"

He marched around behind Alex and released one of his arms from the chains above his head. Snake held his breath in uneasy anticipation of what was about to happen and Fox continually rocked his chair to loosen it from its bolts while Eagle tried unsuccessful to squeeze his hands out of the restraints that had been fastened to the arms of the chair.

Alex's face however was strangely indifferent. The fear or pain apparently didn't register until the man took a firm hold of his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Even then he looked more angry than scared, but when the leaderman suddenly yanked the right arm in his grasp downward and back completely dislocating the shoulder, the blood drained so quickly from his face that the rest of K-unit thought he would faint and the scream that reverberated off of the walls of the large room made their stomach roll.

Alex hung there gasping from the pain as the man went around to his other arm and took a hold of it.

"Do I need to do this one too?" he asked

Alex concentrated on breathing and ignored him.

"I said, do I need to make this arm useless as well?!" he shouted, yanking Alex's face upward so he could see it.

"No." Alex reluctantly growled out in a pained groan.

"Now I asked you a question and I'm sick and tired of waiting for an answer."

Alex continued trying to slow his aching, racing heart and control the pain that was running up and down his arm.

"I'm not answering anymore questions." He answered after a moment

"You just don't get it do you?" The man laughed obviously incredulous at Alex behavior

"Alex," Fox shouted "don't be stupid and stubborn. Acting like this isn't going to bring him back. Don't make it harder for yourself."

"You had better listen to your team mates because they have much more sense than that excuse of a leader ever had and I'm losing my patience very quickly" the man growled in exasperation

"You're gonna leave us with only three team members Cub" Snake added "and you know that we sure as hell don't want that; we can't afford to lose anyone else. I can't allow you to die too."

Alex stared at Snake for a moment before answering in a cold, hoarse voice. "You need to get out of the habit of making promises that you can't keep Snake. You said that you wouldn't let Wolf die either but he did; you can't control what's going on so don't pretend that you can stop it." His voice was bitter and angry as he spoke.

Snake was stunned. He glanced over at Wolf's still form lying on the cold ground. Alex was right; if he couldn't control anything how could he hope to prevent the worst. "I'm sorry mate; so sorry." he whispered although he knew that Wolf couldn't hear him.

The leaderman growled in frustration "I don't have time-" he paused to request the picana from the Japanese man beside him "to wait for the little snot nosed brat to get over his temper tantrum. So if you don't start answering quickly I'm going to start hurting you again."

Alex sighed depressingly again as his rush of anger induced adrenaline wore off and pain took over again "I don't know. How many times do we have to tell you the same thing?"

The man nearly screamed in aggravation "And how many times do I have to tell you the same thing; I don't buy it!"

Alex simply remained silent until the man dug the electrical device into his side and the current ripped through his body again.

"Let's try a different question." the man suggested as he finally shut off the device. Once he had regained a slight semblance of composure, Alex answered in the negative again, as did the rest of K-unit and the pain began again.

This cycle continued for maybe four more questions. All of them pertained to an organization and a supposed investigation that they knew nothing about and as the questions continued the members of K-unit began to get very suspicion of where this man and his secret group stood in the midst of all this.

His questions suggested that he knew much more than he was letting on about the group he was asking them about. As a matter of fact he seemed to be testing them to make absolutely certain that they were as ignorant as they seemed.

"Did you go there as an undercover team or did you just waltz in like you owned the place?"

Alex's body was twitching uncontrollably as tears streamed down his face. He was beginning to wish that he was dead as well. His voice was extremely hoarse and desperate as he again answered with an 'I don't know' despite the fact that he did actually know. He was simply so taxed that he couldn't think straight.

Alex closed his eyes, tensing himself, waiting for the electricity to fry his over stimulated nerves again as he heard the man yell in frustration, but the characteristic jab didn't come.

When he opened back his eyes what he saw caused his heart to momentarily stop. The man was instead almost running towards him with the giant pot of hot water that had been returned to boiling temperature. He was holding it as though he intended to dowse him with the whole pot.

Alex knew without a doubt that if that man succeeded in pouring that pot of boiling water on him that he was going to die of pain first and of the actual injuries second. The thought of it all drove him completely hysterical.

As the man drew closer with the heavy pot that he was obviously struggling, with Alex screamed and thrashed around as he struggled to find some way to avoid the horrific pain to come.


	7. Chapter 7

Alex knew without a doubt that if that man succeeded in pouring that pot of boiling water on him that he was going to die of pain first and of the actual injuries second. The thought of it all drove him completely hysterical. As the man drew closer with the heavy pot that he was obviously struggling with, Alex screamed and thrashed and struggled, trying to find some way to avoid the horrific pain to come.

Fox looked on literally petrified by the ghastly mutilation that was about to occur. He wanted to shout out and scream for it to stop but he was so scared that if he opened his mouth he would seal the deal.

Snake, on the other hand, felt the familiar sensation of losing his temper completely. The terror he felt for Alex and what was about to happen to him was rapidly changing to fury. As he saw the man coming towards Alex like the mad man he was, to literally boil him alive for nothing; he felt that unpleasant heat in his chest that appeared when he felt the very real urge to kill someone and the pounding of his heart that was so loud and forceful that it hurt. He began to feel sick to his stomach as he vehemently yanked and pulled his chains to drag them from the rotting ceiling.

Eagle stared at the situation as it played out in front him and he knew that all of them sitting here were going to be scarred by this for life; in more ways than one . He couldn't help but wonder what Wolf would have done had he been around to see this himself and he suddenly knew that he could not stay silent forever and wondered if the horror could have been prevented if he had opened his mouth as he always did.

"NO! Stop! We know the answer don't hurt him anymore!" He shouted but someone had already beaten him to the punch.

"STOP!" The burly man, whom had first struck Alex, stepped in between Alex and the leaderman just as he approached close enough to throw the water. "Doing this will not get you the information and you most likely won't be able to get anything else either."

The leaderman put the pot on the ground and glared up at the other man; his voice and manner were livid. "So now you're stepping in for the kid now, huh? You're actually protecting the little maggot from me!"

"I'm stepping in to stop you from causing unnecessary damage. It seems to me that we've got what we want; I seriously believe that they don't know. Besides he's a kid."

"You think they really don't? What about Big Mouth; he said 'we know the answer' sounds like they know to me!"

"Just don't kill him like that." The man insisted

The leaderman snarled at him and pushed pass to Alex who was rapidly losing consciousness. Then he turned to Eagle. "Answer the question before I kill the boy on the spot!"

"We were going undercover."

"You mean you went undercover!" He shouted correcting him "You!" He yelled at Snake whose relief barely showed through his enraged expression. "When you arrived, did the members of the group seem at all surprised or suspicious of you?"

"What the fuck is it going to take for you to understand what we've been saying all this time, a comprehension pill?" Snake answered disgustedly "You need to get your fucking act together because it does seem like you're learning a damn thing that you didn't already know!"

From the moment that the man had posed the question, Eagle had been looking at him strangely as though he now knew something. By the time Snake had finished his disdainful response Eagle was sure he had figured it out. Just as the man was turning to do something to Alex again, Eagle spoke; mostly forgetting the warning of the Japanese man.

"I get it. You're slopping up all over the damn place." Eagle started confidently "Now you're trying to cover your tracks."

"The the hell are you talking about Eagle?" Fox demanded

"Them, they're responsible for the bombings. The people we're after are nothing but scapegoats."

"Shut the hell up!" the leader man hissed

Eagle ignored him "And yet the scapegoats know about the whole thing don't they? At least you think they do right? Why else would you ask us questions like that?"

The Japanese man came out from the little room making his way towards Eagle who met his eye with a cool gaze.

"Your dumbest mistake was bringing us in here before we got to the supposed safe house. Now you still don't know how much they know and we CAN'T answer a damn thing since we haven't got a clue! "

There was audible silence in the room following Eagle's revelation until the Japanese man broke it as the leaderman looked on.

"He said to SHUT UP !"

He punctuated the last two words with a bullet each to Eagle's left knee causing him to scream in pain, and to the left side of his stomach.

"That should keep you quiet." He gloated

The look on Eagle's face as he tried to fight off the pain was murderous. "You son of a bitch!" he shouted through gritted teeth. "#$^ you" he screamed defiantly then he spat on the floor and ground it out with his boot. "You're nothing! Just shit beneath my feet! SHIT!" His abdomen was bleeding profusely and he couldn't put his hand there to slow the flow. The man came back over and kicked him in the damaged leg eliciting an agonized scream from him. Then he laughed at the pain he had caused.

"Is there anyone else who's as hard headed as him, who needs to be taught a lesson?" He walked a few steps over to Snake who was shuffling in his chains positively feral with rage.

"What about you?" the Japanese man asked him mockingly "You look as though you're simply bursting with insults."

Snake gave him one good look, sizing him up, checking distances and angles and then he kicked him in the balls as hard as he could and when the man doubled over in shocked pain, he kicked him again before he could fall to the ground. He continued beating him having lost his temper completely after what had happened to Eagle.

Snake continued, giving the man no chance to even move away while the other people in the room watched in a mixture of horror and awe. And as the man was reduced to a quivering vomiting mass on the ground a few significant thoughts ran through the minds of those who were still responsive in the room.

Fox and Eagle found that they didn't really know Snake as well as they thought they did. Both of them were aware of the fact that Snake sometimes had anger management problems; that although he was a quiet kind of guy, he sometimes lashed out when you didn't expect it. But this extremely violent display; this capacity to kill in cold blood was new.

Also neither of them had actually considered how much seeing his comrades this abused and helpless would have affected him either. Snake was known to be a mostly anti-social type who didn't make or keep friendships well. But that was apparently wrong.

The leaderman decided that these men had expired their meager usefulness. With Wolf out of the picture, the man didn't feel so threatened by them despite Snake's display of temper. He hadn't cared very much for the Japanese man anyway because he had been too arrogant and he had already served some use by mortally wounding Eagle.

Alex was the only other person in the unit who seemed to know a good deal about things that he shouldn't and Eagle apparently had the capacity to figure them out. With those three gone he would feel better about what was going on because his other victims seemed to be in the dark as planned. Then he would get rid of Fox and Snake in case they knew things that they didn't let on.

The burly man watched with the detached feeling of having done something wrong along the way in his three long years of employment to this man. He had the distinct feeling of having pushed these men too far and he did truly feel sorry for the boy.

Snake gave the condemned man one last wicked kick.

"That's what I had to say." He announced finally. The exertion he'd put behind the assault was evident by the sweat on his face and the still figure on the floor in front of him. His wrists were bloody from the cuffs around them. the only sound in the room was his heavy breathing.

"You okay?" Fox asked after a second, carefully watching him

"Of course" he answered, with a mixture of exhilaration, which frightened Fox, and residual anger.

"I meant with everything that has happened." Fox amended

Snake glanced from Wolf, to Cub, to Eagle and back to Fox who's eyes reflected his sadness and anger to a certain degree, then to the leaderman who was coming towards him. "I will be." He finally answered. "You?" he returned

"I don't know." Fox sighed

"I'm through with the whole lot of you." The man announced, careful to keep his distance from Snake who still looked dangerous. "But don't think you're going to escape. Now that you've figured out what's going on-" he paused and looked at Eagle who was staring at him furiously with a sickly pallor. His blood was pooling around his feet but there was nothing he could do to stop it. The man snorted with satisfaction before turning back to Snake. "I'm sending you back to your cell and those of you, who don't die before I send for you again, will die when I do."

He turned to the burly man "Send them back to the cell and don't help them carry anybody. Let them struggle by themselves."

When he came over to Snake to release him, the burly man cautiously undid the first chain. "Don't try any of that stuff with me, understand?"

"I wasn't going to." Snake responded coolly.

"Thanks for stepping up for Cub." He added grudgingly as an after thought

The man grunted in response, surprised by the gesture. He decided to return it. "You should go check on your leader; he's not dead."

Snake suddenly stiffened in surprise but he lost no time going over to Wolf while Fox went to Cub.

Snake knelt down beside Wolf and checked his pulse. Sure enough, one was there, weak and thready but there. He gently rolled him over noticing the new bruise on his cheek from where his face had hit the ground and then gradually hefted him up and over his shoulder.

Then he went over to Eagle. Ignoring the eyes of their despicable captor, Snake stopped to check over Alex, who was in Fox's arms, on the way. He looked very bad. His right shoulder stuck off at an odd angle, almost square in shape and his chest was covered in blood. Although he was unconscious now, his body kept twitching from time to time.

Snake continued over to Eagle who was doubled over, quietly moaning in pain as his blood continued to drip onto the floor.

"You holding up mate?" he asked gently

Eagle simply shook his head. It was so vague Snake didn't see it.

"You hear me Eagle? Are you gonna be alright till we come back for you?"

Eagle moaned louder and more forcefully nodded. Snake knew that he must have been in pretty bad shape. Because everyone knew that if Eagle had nothing to say or didn't want to say anything; something was very wrong.

"As soon as we carry Wolf and Cub to the cell I'll be back for you okay?" Eagle didn't answer "He's alive buddy." Snake added as a means to cheer him up slightly "the fucking bastard lied, he's is still breathing." He was pleased to see a small smile grace Eagle's lips before changing back into a grimace. He started to walk away. "Just stay alive till I come back, you hear?"

"I hear." Eagle whispered as his eyes drooped further.

After Snake and Fox had finally left, the leaderman marched over to Eagle and yanked his hair back to stare him in the face. "You think you know shit?" Eagle fought to stay conscious so as to catch anything important that the man might say.

"Let me tell you something" He leaned in closer. "You don't know anything. We are not a terrorist organization like the junkies out there who do it for fun, we're much worse; a terrorist agency.

We don't have any motives for causing destruction except money. We exact terror for the people who will pay and we'll do anything. Human experimentation, bombings, secret attacks, you name it."

He leaned in a little closer knowing he had Eagle's attention.

"But you know what's the best part? No one ever knows. We don't advertise ourselves like some other people do. We have no name, no logo, no face. We're not in any database. No matter whether you escape or not we will never get the blame. Your little revelation means nothing. We'll still be around to do it again and again."

He leaned back with a smug grin

Eagle wasn't sure what to think. These people sounded a lot like Scorpia except for the whole secrecy thing. But the information did not strike him as terribly important because at the moment his highest priority was staying alive and hoping that the rest of his teammates did as well.

Eagle simply ignored his last comment and closed his eyes as he heard Snake's footsteps approaching with the guard from the hall outside. When the leaderman realized that Eagle didn't intend to answer, being as vindictive as he was; he unstrapped the bands hold Eagle's raw wrists to the chair and then grabbed the front of his shirt hauling him to a standing position which turned out to be easier than he had thought because of all the weight they had lost.

Eagle bit his lip till it bled to keep from screaming as his left leg swung uselessly below his shattered knee and his midsection started bleeding harder.

The man was just about to throw him to the floor knowing that he most likely wouldn't be able to catch himself when Snake reappeared in the doorway.

Despite Eagle's best efforts his face still registered his apprehension and before Snake could reach him, he felt himself falling towards the ground. The pain he felt as he hit the concrete was worse than he had thought it would be as he used his elbows and hands to soften the fall and prevent his head hitting the floor. But his knee was jarred and twisted nonetheless and he wasn't able to hold back the scream.

Before either Eagle or Snake was able to do or say anything, the man immediately left them like the coward he was to avoid a confrontation with Snake while he was free.

Eagle concentrated on evening out his breath while Snake wordlessly tried to prop him up from under the shoulders and drag him along but Eagle let out a yell as soon as he'd been moved.

"Damn it!" Snake exclaimed quietly "I don't think I can carry you without it hurting."

Eagle hissed his teeth in annoyance "I'm a soldier Snake if I have to deal with it then I will." then he sighed tiredly "Do what you can Snake, as long as I live through it; I won't hate you."

Snake tried to smile but it was no use. "So you still want me to drag you?"

"I didn't say that." Eagle answered. His words were weak and slurred and his eyes had drifted shut.

"You still with me?" Snake asked as he slid his arms under Eagle's back and knees; careful of the busted one.

Eagle nodded slightly but didn't open his eyes and when Snake finally managed to lift him his face paled further.

"Sorry buddy," Snake whispered looking around for some way they might escape through if the opportunity ever arose again, but he suddenly heard the haughty voice of the leader-man from some hidden passage. "If you make one move toward an opening besides the hallway you just came through, you'll both be dead before you hit the ground." it said

Snake cursed indignantly. "Shut the hell up you slimy dog, you son of a fucking bitch! You think you know everything but you don't know me." Snake yelled enraged. "You can run and hide like the flea bitten mongrel of a coward you are but I will find you and KILL you!"

"He's gone Snake, come on." Eagle whispered urgently. Snake's breaths were coming in short hard gasp and his muscles were tense. But he made an effort to calm down and went out of the room down the lone hallway to the door of the home cell. Just as he contemplated continuing down the hall, the crooked nose German from the first day came up from the opposite direction armed with a semi-automatic rifle, so Snake pushed the door which could only be opened from one side, and the German shut it behind him even before he was properly inside.

Wolf lay in his now usual corner on his side barely breathing, barely alive. Alex lay next to him in much the same state but his arm was thrust away from his body at an odd angle and his chest was covered with blood.

Fox sat against the wall with his knees drawn to his chest and his head resting on them. The look on his face was pure hopelessness.


	8. Chapter 8

Snake gently lay Eagle on the crummy little bench and pulled his bloody hand away to try and apply pressure to the stomach wound himself. Eventually Fox joined him by Eagle's side. He felt the young man's forehead and found that he was already becoming feverish, the beginning sign of infection. No doubt the filthy conditions they had been forced to live were to blame. Eagle opened his eyes slightly at the touch. "Where are they?" he asked in a wheezy voice

"Where else could they be Jake? They're lying on the filthy ground by that dripping wall and I don't think either one of them is waking up again." Fox answered in a downhearted voice as he returned to his spot. "I don't see anyway out of this anymore. Even if we found a way out, the stress of escaping alone could kill them." Fox sighed again heavily.

Snake gave him a harsh look "So you're just giving up?"

Fox looked at him blankly "Yes Sky, I am; I give up. If you can show me some reason why I shouldn't, be my guest. But this is too #$% much."

Snake's expression softened somewhat. He was aware of the fact that each of the men dealt with stress differently. Fox was not as hardcore as the rest of them especially since he was a dad as well. No doubt watching Alex's torture like that had affected him in a bad way.

"You wanna talk about it?" Snake asked quietly

"Talk about what?" Fox asked sarcastically with out lifting his head "We're all going through the same thing, there's nothing to talk about."

"But something specific is eating at you." Snake offered

"Thanks Snake, but no." And with that Fox turned away and lay down by his own wall. But he did not sleep, he simply stared at it. The images and screams continued chasing each other in his head. He couldn;t get rid of the sound and he was afraid that if he closed his eyes he would see that boiling water drench Alex as their wicked captor had intended.

He was afraid to go to sleep for fear of seeing that in all its goriness. But even though he had not closed his eyes the thought of it alone had begun to conjure up the pictures. Fox turned from the wall so he could see Alex in reality trying to shake the thoughts of piercing screams, curled dripping skin. It didn't work, Fox sat up suddenly, shaking slightly. He was sweating.

Snake looked over at him. "You okay Kyle?"

But Fox didn't answer him at first. Snake came over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder but Fox jerked away. "I'm fine." he snapped

"No you're not." Snake scoffed." You should see yourself."

Instead of confiding Fox moved over to just next to Alex and checked his pulse again. It seemed to be a little stronger than before but Fox was sure that it was his imagination.

He went over to Wolf who was definitely worse. His breathing was very light and shallow not to mention slow. He could easily stop breathing altogether at any moment and just slip away out of the land of the living without a sound.

Fox sat back thinking about the irony of the fact that the next day would be October 25; Wolf's birthday. If he died tonight he would die on the eve of his 28th birthday.

It was always somehow sadder when someone died on his birthday; having fulfilled another year yet not a day past it.

"Do you know how long we've been here?" Fox suddenly asked

Snake thought about it for a moment. "I really don't know. I haven't kept track but it seems like a month.

Fox chuckled mirthlessly "We haven't even been here for two weeks, I've been counting the days; but you're right; it does seem like a month if not more." He sat back against the wall between Alex and Wolf.

"I wonder if this is how we're going to die or if anybody even knows that we're missing." He sighed again leaning his head back, closing his eyes for a second feeling drained and weak. Instantly the sickening images came to life in his mind once again.

He sat up straight again peeling his eyes open to find Snake staring at him with a concerned look.

"Something is gnawing at you." Snaked stated instead of asked "I saw it just now; you turned pale a moment after you closed your eyes. Then you jumped up like you saw a nightmare."

Fox ran his hands through his hair warily. "I did." is all he said for a while. After he checked over Alex once again, trying to convince himself that the boy had not been mutilated beyond repair, he ruffled the boy's hair with a regretful look. He finally looked up at Snake with a slightly haunted look. "Every time I close my eyes, I see him as though he had been burned by that pot of water."

"Oh" it was a very heavy syllable

Fox pulled Alex's head into his lap and continued his description. "I… its gross really, sickeningly gross." He paused "It's horrible, the mutilation, his skin was…" He dragged his hands over his face "His face was terrible…it's…it's like his features had merged or something." He hugged Alex close to him for a second and whispered: "And his skin was all over the floor. But the screams are the worse. Goddamn it, I can't….I can't get over his screams."

"We're all going to need counseling after this." Snake answered finally, thoroughly troubled himself "Really deep counseling."

Fox silently agreed.

He gently returned Alex to his makeshift bed nodding. "I'll take first watch." he announced after a while

"I'm not really tired right now." Snake answered

There was silence for a long time. The sound of their friends labored breathing filled the room.

"You know," Fox suddenly announced "He's in a coma now; it's only a matter of time before he stops breathing altogether."

Snake heaved a long sigh "Tell me something I don't know Fox. Tell me something good would you? Tell me you found a way out or something. Not any more goddamn bad news!"

He looked around at his fallen comrades "Before I go fucking insane."

"I don't even know if they can save him even if we do get out of here soon." He continued, looking at Fox questioningly "Can they?"

Fox shrugged gloomily. "It all depends on how soon."

Then the two of them became suddenly aware of a dripping sound at the same time. Fox looked up at Eagle on the bench. His makeshift bandage was soaked through and dripping on the floor.

"Damn it." Snake hissed as he got up and went to him. "DAMN IT! I can't take it! I can't hold this team together. Not when everyone is 'bout dead or close to it."

He ripped off his own filthy shirt, balled up the whole thing and pressed it over the wound firmly.

Eagle squirmed under the sudden pressure but said nothing.

"We have to escape this place. We just have to." Snake suddenly whispered in a hard voice.

"It's times like this that I could use some of Eagle's annoying optimism. God knows we need something besides death to think about." He continued more loudly

"So it's only when I'm dying that you appreciate my talents." Eagle whispered suddenly. His voice was just as raspy as before but with more strength behind his words.

"Don't make things worse now by killing yourself." Snake retorted but it was obvious that he was glad to hear the voice.

"I'm young and strong." Eagle shot back trying to get up on an elbow. "I'll make it." He gave up trying to get up and lay back down with a pale pinched expression. He closed his eyes for a bit.

"Don't be so sure." Fox answered darkly

Eagle groaned loudly and squirmed again under Snakes continued pressure on his wound.

"Not so hard Snake; you're pushing it in there." he ground out

"I have to; you're losing too much blood."

Eagle growled, propping up himself on one elbow. He tried pushing Snake's arm away.

"Come on Eagle it's not that bad. It can't be worse than bleeding to death." Snake pushing him back down.

Eagle flopped back onto the bench and whispered a curse word. "You don't have to shove the damn thing in further though." He hissed but Snake mostly ignored him.

Fox ignored the exchange

Eagle was silent for a while longer before addressing Fox's mood. "Why exactly are you giving up?"

Fox didn't bother to answer.

"You know better than that Fox."

Fox looked as though he wanted to say something but he kept his mouth shut.

Eagle suddenly lifted his good foot to kick Snake away. "Lean off damn it!"

"What the fuck is up with you. Your bleeding onto the fucking floor! You want me to leave you that way?"

"Yes! Leave it alone."

"I'm having a strong sense of deja-vu." Fox interrupted hiding his troubled thoughts behind a blank mask.

The other two ignore him.

Snake and Eagle glared at each other fiercely until Snake abruptly stood back.

"Fine," He moved off. Eagle winced at the sudden release in pressure but said nothing.

"I can't believe you two can act so fucking immature right now." Fox admonished sharply "You sound like a whining hypocrite Eagle, by your own standards you're 'soft' right? We're just trying to help you, if you can't fucking deal with it then you're on your own."

Neither man's expression changed.

Fox got up and glanced from Eagle to Snake with a rarely seen glare. "You know spite is something ugly; why don't we save up what we have for the dicks actually responsible for this." He snapped

The two men avoided his eyes. Surely neither harbored any malice towards the other but tensions were mounting and were being released in the wrong places. Fox understood this and his eyes softened as well but the dullness was momentarily gone.

"We can't let the pressure turn us into less than we are." He said more quietly and his expression told that he knew that's exactly what was happening to them all.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Fox cleared his throat and announced that he thought it would be best to relocate Alex's shoulder now rather than wait for a rescue that might not come.

"Can you do that?" Snake asked in concern glad for the change in topic

Fox knelt down next to the unconscious boy examining the injury. "I have the conceptual training and I know two techniques for setting it back but …"

"But what?" Eagle asked

"The way its set means that only one of them will work and… well the Kocher method is … painful; I don't know if he can stand it."

"Oh" Eagle sympathized quietly "Well…then see if you can do it before he wakes up."

"I'm going to try to." He looked up at Snake with a grim expression "Once I start though, I can't stop. If he wakes up during it, he's most likely going to scream and no doubt pull away. If that happens Snake, I'm going to need you to hold him down so I can finish. No matter how much he screams, you can't let him shift. He could lose the whole arm if we mess up."

Snake nodded understanding the gravity of the situation. They gently propped Alex up in a sitting position in front of Snake who then held him close with the child's back against his chest.

Fox's hands shook as he positioned himself to maneuver the arm back into place; Alex's breathing rate had shifted. He was not as non-responsive as he had been ten minutes ago.

Fox cast Snake a nervous glance before he firmly gripped Alex's arm and pressed it against the boy's side. Alex instinctively stiffened and began to moan. Fox gave Snake a look and Snake tightened his grip on the boy in his arms.

Fox closed his eyes for a moment apparently gathering the resolve to continue. He then gripped Alex's wrist and slowly but firmly rotated his arm outward away from his torso and into the grips of extreme pain. Fox knew, as soon as Alex jerked and the resistance appeared, that Alex was fully awake and about to face hell. It wasn't too late to stop now without damage but Fox pursed his lips and pressed on.

Snake held onto Alex firmly as the kid stared back and forth between them in confused anguish. But Fox refused to meet his eyes. He knew that he'd lose all his determination if he saw the look of bewildered betrayal on Alex's face.

Strangely Alex didn't scream at first he just squirmed and tried to buck out of Snake's grasp but his desperation grew more profound when Snake tightened his hold to constricting proportions and Fox began the third step.

With Alex's arm totally rotated outward Fox now had to bring the elbow forward and upward. This elicited a scream from Alex as soon as he began the movement but Fox continued despite the tears that had now sprung into his own eyes.

Alex screamed and screamed struggling against Snake mightily. He failed to understand why they were doing this to him. In his groggy, wounded state he didn't realize that they were helping him. Had he been properly lucid he probably still wouldn't have appreciated it, but at the moment he felt overwhelmed by a sudden sense of all compassing inescapable danger, deceit and pain. In other words, a nightmare of hell that had spread now to everywhere he looked so that there was literally nowhere else to turn.

Intoxicated with these despairing thoughts Alex screamed and sobbed. Fox finally finished off the entire maneuver by pushing the arm back in the direction of Alex's midsection and they all heard and saw the shoulder suddenly shift back into place with a barely audible pop.

Fox sat back on his heels and swiped his forearm across his eyes. He looked at the damage he had caused in the spirit of goodness. As Snake relinquished his strangling hold and instead hugged the child to calm him, Fox got up and went over to the door and just leaned against it wondering why everything had gone so wrong.

Snake tried in vain to calm Alex down whose pain was not only physical now. He was emotionally broken as well. This small yet significant ordeal had twisted and snapped his last hold on sanity.

His confusion, being awoken by the pain, it all distorted the lines between reality and its nightmare, and the small reprieve that the time with his comrades was suppose to be. Consequently the line between friends, his brothers actually, and the wicked had become miserably blurred.

"It's okay Cub. We're only helping you." Snake soothed as he rested his chin on Alex's head, rubbing his back. Alex continued to silently shake; he didn't seem able to stop.

Snake could not bring himself to say the words 'You're safe.' because it was a complete lie. None of them were safe.

"We're still on the same side Alex, we're still the good guys. We only want to help you."

He could tell that Alex was listening but he couldn't tell if he had gotten through to him. Alex was still tense and untrusting in his arms but he had calmed slightly.

"Look at me Alex." He turned Alex to look him in the eye and lifted his chin. "None of us will ever knowingly hurt you, okay? You may not like what we do and it might hurt like hell when we do it but you can always trust us. Do you understand me?"

Snake knew that Alex had heard him but the kid's hurtfully blank expression suggested that he didn't care in the least. He seemed not to care about anything actually, just his own pain and foreseeable death. Nothing else had any value any more; it just didn't matter.

"Alex do you hear me?"

Alex continued to stare at him for a second longer and then turned away. He closed his eyes tiredly and took a shuddering labored breath before lying down again against Snake's chest. It was not the response that Snake had been looking for but it could suffice. The kid just needed some comfort now. Just some reprieve from the pain. He could give him that. He looked up at Fox who stood by the door watching the exchange.

Fox slid down the wall to rest against the door. "I'm sorry Alex; believe me I didn't mean to hurt or frighten you. But I had to fix your arm and I'm glad I was able to set it back, just not at the expense of your trust."

Alex glanced at him as well but did not move. He wasn't crying anymore but he wasn't what you could call thankful either.

Fox deflated further at Alex's silence, but let him be. Instead he went to check on Eagle again.

"Hey Jake, you still hanging in there?"

Eagle was staring up at the ceiling in a dazed fashion with eyes feverishly bright. His only reply was a slight nod. Fox knelt down next to the bench and went about assessing Eagle's overall status knowing it couldn't be good. His fever had escalated and his breathing rate was alarmingly rapid. Fox laid his head on Eagle's chest just over his heart to get an accurate idea of his heart rate. It was fierce and rapid like that of a young baby. Way too fast for a grown man.

Fox stood up and checked the injuries themselves. Eagle's left knee was painfully mangled underneath the loose bandage Snake had wrapped around it. Fox feared that the kneecap might have to be replaced with an artificial one if they survived.

He gently removed the saturated bandage completely and took a fresh one he had just prepared to rewrap it. As he did, Eagle gasped. Fox didn't blame him, his knee was on fire no doubt, but he was also losing blood fast. The floor around him was staining red and the tiny room stank of the filthiness of sickness and imminent death.

Fox laid a hand on Eagle's forehead for a moment quietly apologizing before continuing. The other injury was not bleeding as badly thanks to Snake's rather rough ministrations but it was obviously the entry point for the bacteria that were now sending Eagle into the fatal grips of sepsis. The area was swollen and tender.

He carefully replaced the bandage, loathing to cover the already infected area with the dirty cloth, but he had no other.

When he was finish, Fox stood up and studied Eagle's face for a little while. He stared trying to remember what his face had looked like before the gaunt haunted look had overshadowed it. Although they hadn't been imprisoned long, the lack of food and the anguish was bare upon there faces.

Eagle continued to stare fixedly at the ceiling with a pinched expression. He looked like a soldier who had been wounded on the battle field, who knew he would not be saved, but was determined to die like a man.

Fox wondered if that's what they were now; wounded abandoned soldiers.

He laid his hand on Eagle's head again. "Rest Jake, you need it. Just try and sleep or something." he swiped the excess sweat from his comrade's brow before sighing and turning away. He hoped this was not going to be the last time he saw him awake.

Then he walked past Snake who still held Alex, to sit beside Wolf. He knew Snake was watching him, worried that he might break, but he didn't care.

Now he studied Wolf's face. He seemed to be trying to etch\the picture of Wolf's peaceful expression into his mind before his friend died. For the tenth time since being back in the cell, Fox felt Wolf's neck for the weak throb that proved that the man had not yet passed.

He had often made a point of getting on Wolf's nerves. Wolf was so easy to irritate but he could always take it. He'd usually bounce back with a witty comment of his own when he realized that Fox was just poking fun.

Wolf also had this fearless attitude that had always given Fox the impression that he thought he was too strong to die.

He just had this overwhelming confidence, like he knew that he could overcome anything. Sometimes Fox had found that attitude annoying, especially when it came to making decisions for the team. That's where he and Wolf often disagreed. Surprisingly though, Wolf was often right in the decisions he'd made.

Maybe if he'd had a say in how they'd went about this particular mission things would have went differently. But it wasn't to be. Instead Wolf had been given strict orders; Orders that had ultimately led to their doom.

Fox continued to examine the bruised face and nearly non-existent rise and fall of his leader's chest.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you Ry." Fox paused and glanced at the door for a moment. He pulled his hands down over his eyes and stood up again.

"I'm afraid we just weren't strong enough."

As expected Wolf did not answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think and I will personally see to it that not one of them dies. ;)


	9. Chapter 9

He noted Snake's subdued look. Alex was staring at Wolf and then back at Fox with a curious expression.

Fox answered his unasked question. "The man lied. Wolf isn't dead yet."

Alex nodded sadly and then looked to Eagle. Fox explained his situation as well.

Alex's eyes widen but he said nothing. Then he succumbed to a sudden coughing fit. He seemed to cough forever before weakly slumping forward and nearly onto the floor if not for Snake's strong arms holding him up. Alex gasped trying to drawn in a breath which sounded raspy and labored.

"What happened Cub?" Snake inquired

Alex gestured to his stripped throat.

"I should have anticipated this." Fox announced angrily

"What is it?"

"He's damaged his throat. All the screaming, his vocal chords are swelling."

"There's nothing we can do about it right?" Snake asked dejectedly

"No"

"Then stop beating up yourself, you're doing what you can."

Fox looked at him a little longer than was necessary then suddenly clenched his jaw. His face became a stony mask.

"No I'm not."

He strode over to Eagle purposefully and beckoned Snake to follow. "Help me move him. I need the bench."

Snake looked at him quizzically.

"We need to defend ourselves."

Alex sleepily watched from a corner, leaning on the wall for support while he cradled his sore arm.

The two men gently lifted their comrade from the hard board and laid him down on the crowded floor.

He did not stir as they did so.

Fox then took the bench over to the door with a mean, closed off expression on his face.

Pressing it against the door at chest level he forced the legs of it apart breaking them off leaving jagged edges. Then he took one of the resulting pieces in his hand, again surprising Alex with his strength as he split the thick piece in two again.

Snake took one of the pieces. He looked down at Alex and explained.

"I can kill him with this if I aim for the neck." Alex noted that he sounded perfectly prepared to do such a thing if need be and he was not surprised that he had no compunction about doing this himself either.

Snake continued "I'm not afraid to die right now Alex, it's inevitable anyway." He fingered the splintered wooden dagger almost fondly "But I'm sure as hell taking somebody with me if I do."

Alex startled suddenly when Fox took the remaining piece of the bench and broke it on the door. He tossed the other half to Snake who seemed glad to have it.

"Aim true because you've only got one shot with something like that." Fox commanded.

"I always do." Snake was the best marksman in the team with uncanny precision and little to no patience; he didn't need encouragement.

Fox just nodded curtly in acknowledgment. A moment later the door slowly swung open.

Alex involuntarily began to shake. His heart, weakened by the fear and physical stress of his treatment, beat erratically and loudly. He looked frantically to Snake for safety, knowing it was futile, yet craving it none the less. Snake came to him, incredibly moved by the sight of the previously strong willed, almost fearless, if somewhat hot-headed individual, reduced to a quivering shell of a person. So frightened by the prospect of more pain and suffering. Snake knelt beside him and pulled him close while Fox stood over Eagle, guarding him actually, with the make- shift club in his hands.

Isn't this sweet-" the man who entered began to sneer. But Fox lifted his weapon yelling "Shut the fuck up and back off!"

The man stepped back just before Fox was able to break his jaw with his savage swing and was silent for a moment, not truly expecting them to still fight back.

"The boss doesn't need him anymore." The man finally barked referring to Alex. "And you're next." He added maliciously

Fox looked ready to attack again but the man pulled out his gun and aimed at Eagle's head.

"Don't even think about it." He growled quietly "Else I'll put a bullet in his fucking head."

Fox froze.

"Why kill us separately?" Snake ventured daringly even as the sound of the gun being cocked echoed through the room along with their ragged breathing. "Wherever this child goes I'm going." He paused "Or else go ahead." He made solid eye contact with the man and glared wickedly.

"Fine, I'll just kill all of you then." He turned the gun on Snake who did not flinch as he held Alex's shoulders protectively.

The battle of wills lasted approximately half a minute before the henchman gave in.

"We'll see where the hell all this bravado is going to take you when you're fucking dead." He ground out backing down. He pointed the gun at Alex escorting them out of the room.

They didn't even bother to put up a fight as he led them to a room they hadn't seen before. The hardest thing now was steeling themselves for the pain before the death. Snake knew they weren't going to make it swift. He was terrified for Alex. How much was the child going to have to endure?

The courage and defiance he liked to show when they were back in the cell was not going to do Alex any good where they were going, but Snake was hard pressed to find out what would.

Alex for the most part seemed numb and unresponsive. Withdrawn into some recess of his psyche to comfort himself in oblivion. Snake hoped that Alex might be able to find solace there before he actually died.

Neither of them could have been prepared for what was actually in store for them.

Alex stopped short at the entrance to the room whose walls and floor were stained a telltale burgundy. The stench greeting them was a surprising mixture of sweat, blood and fur.

He grabbed a hold of Snake, pulling on him, backing away with a look of terror that echoed the feeling in Snake's heart.

But the man behind them viciously pushed them further into the room and towards the deep rectangular pit in the floor that was the source of their terror. Alex, who still could not or would not speak, turned to Snake with wide, pleading eyes.

Snake looked up, scanning their surroundings, searching for a way out that he knew did not exist. Anything to not have to look into Alex's hurt filled eyes.

He entertained the thought of sneaking up on the bastard who had led them in, now that his back was turned to prepare some other hellish piece of equipment, but he knew that would never work either. He was startled from his futile attempt at rebellion by Alex who had taken both of Snake's hands in his own and had very deliberately wrapped them around his neck. His meaning was clear and the look on his face had Snake struggling to silence the inner turmoil that Alex's suggested had raised.

How could he kill him? How could he allow the memory of Alex's very last breath to rest solely on his shoulder, he thought. Yet truly the question was how could he not. How could he deprive him of this last chance of a reprieve from the pain. If death was inevitable, he only deserved for it to be as rapid and as painlessly so as possible?

Snake blinked away tears he had tried so hard to hold back all this time. He glanced down at the sleeping monstrosity that they were about to have to face and steeled his resolve. He pulled Alex into a fierce hug, kissing the top of his head before taking a firm grip of his chin. "I'm sorry Cub." he whispered, tensing his muscles for the lightning fast movement that would painlessly break his neck. As Alex nodded his complete consent hugging back, Snake felt his arm explode with pain just before he was able to execute the maneuver.

Three shots of pain , that coincided with the explosive force of the gun that their captor had deployed in an attempt to stop Snake saving Alex from undue pain; quite unintentionally saving the child's life in the process.

The third shot caused Snake to stumble pushing Alex into the pit by accident and nearly falling in himself. In a testament to just how terrified Snake was for the pain Alex would feel in a few seconds, his right arm shot out, despite his mutilated shoulder, to grab Alex's outstretched arm in midair and he begun painstakingly pulling him back up again even as the animal awoke with a roar and charged at them.

Alex fell anyway when the man furiously kicked Snake in the side, flipping him over and breaking two ribs. Snake quickly rolled over, seeming not to even feel the pain, trying to find out Alex's fate. Staring down into the pit he couldn't see him anywhere. The horrible animal, which seemed to look like a grizzly bear but somehow not completely so, was standing on all fours actively examining what ever was beneath it. Snake screamed in frustration and grief thinking Alex had been decimated.

But the beast jumped up, excited by the sound, revealing Alex, who had apparently been knocked unconscious by the fall, lying perfectly still as though he were dead but miraculously untouched .

Snake studied him for one precious second searching for the telltale sign of a breath and laughed outright in elation when he noticed it, garnering new strength from the sudden revelation that Alex would remain unharmed by the animal as long as it continued to assumed that he was dead.

His nemesis next to him roared in anger noticing the fortunate turn of events as well. With new hope Snake attacked him in his moment of anger driven distraction and wrestled the gun away from him, throwing it into the pit, initiating what Snake would remember as the fight of his life.

Fox stood stock still as the heavy door shut in front of him. Yet even as he stood like a statue his body was quaking uncontrollably. His palms were bleeding from the half crescents he had pressed into them from his tightly clenched fist. The rushing sound pounded in his ears in sync with the hammering in his head and his utter inadequacy nearly brought him to his knees.

He slowly unfurled his hands with difficulty. He studied them, perhaps hoping to find an answer to this long-suffering problem in them, but instead took comfort in the blood he saw pooling around the self inflicted marks.

He wondered if this was how Snake felt when he lost his temper. When he described the sensation of aching to hurt something. Fox couldn't quite describe the feeling he had right now, maybe it wasn't the same, but he knew that if he was able to kill something, this heaving hole in his gut would be partially filled.

Still, thinking of Snake and his frequent descents into the unruly darkness, let Fox see something he hadn't cared to notice before. He thought of Snake's frequent outburst of righteous indignation, the times when he and Wolf saw eye to eye and collaborated on a decidedly violent course of action; to save something dear. Even as he considered how they acted and how much he always opposed it, he let himself fall to his knees; satisfied with the sickening crack that jolted up and down his legs and knew more or less that that was why they did it.

Fox was well aware of his own indignation at the treatment of his unit. So much more so because of the fact that he had been quite useless at the moment when they faced imminent death. He fell on his hands, loathing himself so much for the opportunity he failed to take to save those closest to him at the moment when it came.

If he every saw the son of a bitch again he'd rip his head off no doubt; But right now, Fox was more readily available.

The desire to punish was still ripping strong through his system and he needed punishment; since he had failed to punish the real culprits; he was guilty. That was his crime and it was no less heinous in his eyes.

He hauled himself to a standing position and silently begged Alex and Sky to forgive him for his hand in their deaths, then he launched himself at the door thunderously with the single-minded intent to tear down the thing or die trying which lent unprecedented strength to his endeavor. But almost instantly he was startled by Snake's scream when Alex fell into the pit.

He froze, listening in as hard as he could. He was so desperate to know what had happened, what was happening, that he heard things. Things that couldn't be there. The sweat dripping into his eyes went unnoticed as he listened even more desperately to what sounded like-

As soon as his opponent found himself disarmed, he wasted no time in retaliating. The two men wrestled dangerously close to the edge of the pit where the animal, excited by the scent of fresh blood on Snake's shoulder, was trying tenaciously to swipe one of the seemingly unsuspecting men into his deadly grasp. Alex, laying not far from where he had fallen, was completely forgotten.

Snake was extremely disadvantaged by the near immobility of his right arm, but he made up for it in the sheer ferocity of his onslaught. Still it was a lost battle. Under the shower of punches he was enduring, Snake suddenly decided to try pitching his opponent into the animal's reach in a bid to gain the upper hand.

If it weren't for the commotion in the hallway that slightly distracted his opponent Snake wouldn't have been able to pull it off. But just as the man faltered uncomfortably, Snake landed a fierce left hook to his lower jaw dazing him. He quickly rolled over. Now he was on top and he poured all he had into it. He could barely see for all the blood in his eyes and one of them was swollen shut but he really didn't care.

The man managed to get his hands around Snake's neck and the lack of oxygen was making his vision close off. But determination could go a long way. Snake stood up suddenly and instantly regretted it for the wave of dizziness that caused him to stumble.

The two men wrestled desperately. Truly, despite the fearless front he like to keep up around his friends, Snake was afraid to die right now. He was terrified to fall into that hole and be torn to pieces. He still want ever so badly to live. That fear made him fight like hell was at his ass.

With a mighty swing he knocked the other man off balance nearly falling himself. The man flailed around, backpedaling to save himself but the animal was upon him in an instant to pull him within reach. To Snake, although the scream was gut-wrenching, it was also satisfying. He turned away before he could witness the carnage but not before noting Alex's location so he could rescue him.

Except he quite suddenly found himself face to face with his real nemesis, the leader of the whole operation. He had a gun pointed in his face and the hate he had for Snake so distorted his already damaged face, that he looked like a bull dog.

"You think your so fucking powerful," he snarled "Well survive this."

A company of soldiers burst into the room and shot him down before he had the chance to carry out his threat.

Snake looked up in disbelief at the sudden turn of events. The relief he felt when he finally comprehended that they were saved was unimaginable. He felt so free of the burden he had been carrying that the mighty adrenaline rush that had kept him going for so long fled and he fainted.

Just as the SAS rescue teams emerged with the last of the prisoners along with his own men, the leader of a uncharted rescue team raised his hand in a signal. A minute later the ground shook with an underground explosion that obliterated the torture facility where Fox and his comrades had just spent 14 days that they would each remember for the rest of their lives. Other men had been found in the facility. Some already dead, others on the brink of death like these here. None of them unscarred.

The head of the British rescue team that had been sitting in the area for about ten days now with out a clue as to the atrocities happening beneath them, marched over to K-unit's true savior; Hesam bin Tariq Al-Fulan but he wasn't thanking him.

"Why the hell did you do that?" He nearly spat in the man's stoic face. "We needed that evidence!"

Hesam did not answer "We have no idea who these people were, much less what they wanted. You had no right "

Until now, Hesam had not acknowledged the man's presence, but his eyes flashed now with anger and pity for the poor souls who had nearly died because of this fool's incompetence.

"No, you didn't, did you? You don't anything, that's why these men suffered, is it not? It is beyond your meager understanding to comprehend these sort of things Captain. But I do."

He turned to the side feeling bile rise in his throat and spat into the hot sand at his feet.

"Learn to do your own job before you dare to tell me how to do mine." he concluded looking the man straight in the face."None of my men died because I acted for them and they knew I would. Yours? Not so lucky." His expression registered pure disgust. Then he motioned for his men to gather up their injured to go home; their mission was complete. As he turned to give his assistance to a struggling comrade, he caught the eye of one of the British soldiers who had been rescued alive. He was being hustled into a waiting chopper but he turned back and made eye contact with Hesam.

His dark brown eyes seemed almost black against the gaunt paleness of his skin and a film of lifelong memories of terror was visible in his gaze. His frame was slight and fragile looking and his brown, dirty hair stuck in clumps to his sweaty, bruised face, but he lifted his hand to salute Hesam, holding the pose for a moment and then nodded a sincere thank you.

Hesam felt the immense gratitude emanating from the man's heart and saluted back with a nod and a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I look back on this now after so many years I find that I don't cringe as much I thought I would. Perhaps that's a bad thing, but I like to think its because of how much effort I put into making it the first time.
> 
> Either way let me know what you think and to be clear, none of our beloved soldiers die but the sequel may be a long time in coming because I have other projects going right now.
> 
> But on the bright side, anyone who reviews will get a preview of my latest unpublished work which is being handled with the same care and love as this story before it. Its my baby and as such the going is slow but its my best work yet.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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